During the months of May and June when peak power demand touched 2,400 MW, and DVB equipment tripped every other day, Spokesman Jagdish Kapoor blamed it on excess load, tired transformers and faulty lines. The unscheduled load-shedding extended up to almost six to seven hours every day apart from the hour-long scheduled load-shedding.

Both Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma and the DVB top brass assured the public that the power crisis would be a thing of the past with the coming of the monsoons. The monsoon has been here for a long time now. But there are no signs of the promised respite. South Delhi is the worst-affected.

The Nehru Place transformer caught fire last week bringing down the Okhla transformer with it, plunging Nehru Place, Greater Kailash parts I and II, East of Kailash and adjoining areas in darkness. Yesterday, the grid at Adhchini collapsed affecting the supply from Mehrauli, Safdarjung Enclave to Safdarjung Development Area (SDA) and adjoining areas.

The board blamed consumers for the problem in Greater Kailash saying that too many unregistered air conditioners were wrecking havoc on the ``already overloaded lines''. At Adhchini, the board today blamed ``moisture'' for the fire in the power station. And as important areas of the Capital went without power, DVB officials remained closeted in meetings.

All efforts to contact DVB chairman Virender Singh remained futile throughout the day, late into the night. ``He is in a meeting,'' said his staff when contacted repeatedly. Member Technical Y.P. Singh was unavailable as well. Naveen Sharma, a resident of Malviya Nagar, said: ``For the past three days there has been no electricity in our area at night. We tried to contact the DVB control room but they never respond to the phone. Senior DVB officials are never available. Today I went to the DVB office. There were several residents of Malviya Nagar, Green Park and Safdarjung Development Area but none of the officials were available to speak to us.''

DVB may blame the changing seasons and the residents of Delhi for non-availability of continuous power supply, but Board Chairman Virender Singh has to emerge from his office to gauge the magnitude of the problem. ``Rampant power theft is the root cause of power shortage in Delhi,'' says a board official. The board's Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses stand at a staggering 50 per cent. But here too, the DVB officials refuse to take the blame.

Senior DVB officials when cornered whisper in conspiratorial tones that much as they would like to, political pressure deters them from taking action against organised power theft in the mushrooming jhuggi clusters and unauthorised colonies.

Meanwhile Delhiites suffer long dark nights with the heat, humidity and mosquitoes, DVB officials remain insulated from the problems of the people.