In the past few months, the incidence of power cuts in Hyderabad has gone from bad to worse. While there were no power cuts driven by the heightened summertime consumption, ever since the Monsoon rains started hitting the city, power cuts have become overlong and common. Sometimes, even minimal rain results in hours-long power cuts.
Social media-savvy citizens of the city have been taking to Facebook, Twitter, etc to draw the attention of the Electricity department (given the staff members are not reachable on the phone). As per some Netizens, those who resort to social media to complain about the power cuts have been requested by the Electricity department to take down their posts.
Some Twitter users today wrote that the staff members first ask for their phone number and USC number via Direct Messenger. They use the USC number to trace the complainant's address and then make a visit to their homes to request them to take down the social media post. "They say that they have been pressured by their superiors to make the customers take down unfavourable social media posts," a Twitter user named Krithika wrote.
Movies4U, a movie page with nearly 29,000 followers on Twitter, says, "The same thing happened to me. Shortly after I tweeted out about the power cut in our locality, they asked for my address and USC number instead of just asking for the area name. However, I ignored their messages because I had already anticipated this kind of behavior."
