Chennai, Oct 12 (PTI) A power outage at the Tamil Nadu Secretariat plunged ministers’ office rooms into darkness, PMK chief Anbumani Ramadoss said on Monday, urging the state government to take urgent measures on a war footing to end power cuts.
Authorities responded, saying the outage was caused by a technical issue that was addressed immediately and power supply was swiftly restored.
Ramadoss said it was worrying that power cuts reported across Tamil Nadu had now disrupted work at the Secretariat, the seat of the state government.
“A power outage at the Tamil Nadu government Secretariat this morning plunged the office rooms of ministers on the first floor into darkness. Videos of the incident are going viral on social media,” Anbumani claimed in a statement, sharing a video clip on his social media handle.
The video showed parts of the Secretariat without power.
Unannounced power cuts had continued across Tamil Nadu for more than a month, with hardly any area appearing to have been spared, he alleged.
He said power outages at events attended by ministers and now at the Secretariat indicated that the situation was worsening.
“This situation must be rectified immediately,” he said.
Power cuts severely affected people across all sections of society. The state government must, therefore, take urgent measures on a war footing to find a lasting solution to the ongoing power crisis, he said.
Ramadoss attributed the power cuts primarily to a “significant gap” between Tamil Nadu’s electricity demand and power availability.
He questioned why outages and interruptions continued despite the government’s announcements that it would initially procure 2,000 MW of electricity and subsequently increase the procurement to 4,500 MW.
State electricity authorities responded, saying the brief power cut, caused by technical glitches, was confined to some portions of the first floor of the Secretariat’s main block.
There was no disruption in power distribution on the other floors of the Secretariat, a press release said.
The power cut, which occurred this morning, was addressed by officials, and supply was quickly restored.
The power distribution infrastructure inside the Secretariat complex is maintained by the Public Works Department (Buildings), the release added.
Power cuts were among the key issues raised by the Opposition ahead of the October 6, 2026, Assembly bypolls to the Madurantakam and Dharapuram constituencies.
Former Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin had targeted the TVK government over law and order and power outages, sarcastically remarking that the competition under the regime was between “power cuts and machete cuts”.
The remark apparently referred to crimes, including murders, committed using sickles and machetes. PTI VGN SSK
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