Who stole my business? The power cut did
20.05.12
An increase in the duration of scheduled and unscheduled power cuts has affected the work schedules of people like Chakravarthy , who work from home . Since she can make chocolates only in small batches, Chakravarthy starts working on orders at least a week in advance.
"I used to make them fresh , just a day or two before delivery ," she says. "With the power going off, thetemperaturein thefridge keeps fluctuating and the irregular refrigeration reduces the shelf life of the chocolates." While it's just a two-hour outage in Mylapore, M S Pandurngan, who crafts handmade pens at a small scale unit set up at his Tiruvallur home , has to deal with power cuts that stretch between six toeighthours. "We don't have power from 9am to noon and then again from 3pm to6pm," saysP andurangan.
"These are the scheduled cuts. The power also goes off again from 6.30pm to 7.30pm and several times during the night," he says.
Pandurangan employs two people , who help him shape and polish the pens using motorised devises . He has to pay them even though they are not able to do much work. "These are trained people . If I lose them , it will be difficult for me to find skilled workers again ," says Pandurangan , who has begun working into the night to meet orders.
Source: Times of India