Shivpuri (Madhya Pradesh): Angry over frequent power cuts and load shedding, villagers in Madhya Pradesh's Shivpuri district staged a symbolic funeral procession of Energy Minister Pradyuman Singh Tomar on Wednesday to protest the ongoing electricity crisis.
The protest took place in Sirsaud village, which falls under the Khairaghat electricity distribution area in the Karera Assembly constituency.
Villagers prepared a symbolic bier of the minister and carried it in a funeral procession while raising slogans against the state government and the electricity department.
The procession began at the Ramraja Temple and passed through the village before reaching the Sirsaud-Pichhore road, where the protesters performed symbolic last rites.
A video of the protest also surfaced on social media on Wednesday.
Traditional drums were played during the protest, drawing the participation of a large number of villagers.
After the symbolic funeral, the villagers observed a minute's silence for the "peace of the government's soul" as a mark of protest. They also bathed using water from a panchayat borewell to express their anger over the lack of electricity.
The villagers said they had earlier blocked the Sirsaud-Pichhore road for nearly three hours on Monday over the same issue.
At the time, a Junior Engineer (JE) from the electricity department had assured them that the load-shedding problem would be resolved after discussions with senior officials, following which the protest was called off.
However, the villagers alleged that despite the assurance, power supply remained disrupted from 8 pm to 6 am.
They said the prolonged outage during hot and humid weather left residents, especially children, women and the elderly, struggling through the night because of mosquitoes and discomfort.
The protesters warned that if regular electricity supply is not restored soon, they will intensify their agitation.
