NEW DELHI - Enraged residents of Delhi continued their protest against one of the worst power crises to hit the national capital, coercing Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Sunday to call a high-level meeting with power providers to discuss the problem.

The meeting at Dikshit’s residence would be attended by senior officials of the state power department and the private power companies like BSES and North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL).

“Congress president Sonia Gandhi Saturday called Dikshit, asking her to take quick and effective steps to control the situation,” a senior Congress leader told IANS.

Reeling under prolonged power outages - ranging from a couple of hours to 12 hours a day in various areas - the city people once again took to the streets Sunday to protest and demanded a solution.

Protests against power cuts are going on for the last few days.

“There is no electricity since last night. More than 12 hours have passed but there is no respite. We went to the local office of these private power companies, but besides giving us assurances, they have done nothing to help anyway,” said Rajkishore Sharma, a resident of Sangam Vihar area in south Delhi.

“Because of long power cuts, even the inverters have stopped working. The government officials are sitting comfortably in their homes and we are being left on our own, said Sunena Aggarwal, a resident of Anand Vihar.

The power outages have also affected the water supply in several areas.

“The frequent and long power cuts have affected the water supply also. The motor pumps are not working without electricity and without them, there is no water,” said Praveen Bhatia, a resident of Mukherjee Nagar area.

Meanwhile, the demand for electricity Saturday reached 4,218 MW - a record in Delhi till now.

With the power situation deteriorating in the capital, Dikshit had earlier this week asked the discoms to publish the schedule of rotational power shut-offs so that people could plan their day accordingly.

The Met department, meanwhile, said the heat wave conditions would continue for the next couple of days across north India.

The Delhi government has requested the central government to allocate more power to the city. “The situation may improve soon as we are expecting to get 250 MW power from either Uttarakhand or other states,” said a senior power department official.