Tarun Karthick
Sri Vijaya Puram, 29 April 2025
A nearly four-day-long blackout in the remote villages of Laxmi Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, and Shastri Nagar in Great Nicobar led to a major protest on 28 April 2025, with frustrated residents blocking State Highway-2 and demanding immediate action from the authorities. The protest, which continued into the night, was finally called off after assurances were given by local officials, including the Pramukh of Panchayat Samiti Campbell Bay, Mr. E. S. Rajesh.
The affected villages have been grappling with chronic power issues for over a year, but the situation reached a breaking point last week when power supply became almost completely unavailable. Residents said the erratic and often absent electricity had disrupted their daily routines, forced households into darkness, and severely hampered mobile network connectivity — the only line of communication in this isolated region.
According to officials, the root cause of the persistent outages is the ageing Aerial Bunched Cable (ABC) infrastructure. In an attempt to resolve the issue, the Electricity Department had recently replaced approximately 2.5 kilometres of old cable with new lines. However, within no-time, the new cables reportedly developed faults, plunging the three villages into darkness once again.
With no electricity and no concrete steps from the administration, residents took to the streets early Monday morning, blocking State Highway-2 at Gandhi Nagar and halting the movement of the STS bus headed toward Campbell Bay. The villagers demanded that diesel generators be immediately deployed in each of the three villages to ensure backup power during outages.
The protest gained momentum as villagers recalled how a small generator had previously been stationed at Gandhi Nagar during the pre-grid era post-tsunami. That generator, which had provided a few hours of electricity daily, was removed years after the villages were connected to the Campbell Bay Power House. Residents had opposed its removal at the time, arguing it should remain as a contingency for frequent power breakdowns — common due to falling trees and the challenging terrain along the North-South Road.
Despite multiple attempts by the administration to persuade the protesters to end the agitation, residents refused to budge. It was only late at night that Mr. E. S. Rajesh intervened and personally addressed the gathering. He conveyed the administration’s assurance that one generator each would be installed in Laxmi Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, and Shastri Nagar as an interim solution to the recurring outages.
Following Mr. Rajesh’s appeal and commitment from the authorities, the villagers agreed to call off their protest. The administration has now begun making arrangements to deploy the generators and restore some semblance of normalcy to the affected areas.
For residents who have endured not just days but months of unreliable electricity, the promise of dedicated backup power is a welcome relief. Many now hope that with these new installations, their long-standing struggle for stable power supply may finally see resolution.