NEW DELHI - Sleepless for the second consecutive hot and humid night, septuagenarian Ram Kumar was walking up and down the road cursing electricity officials as the thickly populated southwest Delhi locality where he lives had been without power since Saturday night.

Acute power crisis due to the searing heat has hit life hard in general in the national capital. But in Munirka area electricity supply has been eluding the angry residents because of something more than the elusive monsoon.

When asked, an official said a cable is damaged and couldn’t be repaired on Sunday - being a day off for power distribution company BSES.

“PWD workers had damaged an under ground cable and it’s creating all the problem. As Sunday was a holiday, the problem continued,” the BSES official said.

But the justification was not enough for the suffering angry residents, like Ram Kumar, to cool down.

“I cannot understand what is happening. It is a real pain,” said Kumar as he wiped the sweat on his back. “Why is our government not doing anything about this. They come for votes but never solve our problems.”

There was a complete blackout in the locality from Saturday night onwards and the electricity supply was restored in the wee hours of Monday. To be precise, the power went off one minute past 11 p.m. Saturday forcing around 30,000 people to suffer two sleepless nights.

The normally silent by-lanes of the neighbourhood were busy with life - a young married couple was looking towards the road holding a hand fan, small babies were crying inconsolably, youth were talking loudly on the roads and old men and women were sitting in balconies and verandas.

Their discussions revolved round the electricity problem in Delhi with occasional interventions from young guys about the poor show by India in the second international one-day cricket match against West Indies.

“I don’t know how Delhi is going to become a world class city if it can not provide electricity and water to its citizens. I went to a mall during lunch time but at night I cannot escape anywhere,” said Samyak Pradhan, an unemployed youth trying his luck for a bank job.

Said Vivek Tokas, another resident: “You cannot read, prepare for competitive examinations and more so cannot sit at ease. It is too hot and humid.”

The situation is a reality check for the Delhi administration that aims to make the capital a world class city before it hosts the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

“This summer, almost all parts of the city are facing power shedding but for two nights at one stretch was too much,” said Sambit Chauhan, another resident of the neighbourhood.