LUCKNOW, May 24 -- In what appears to be an unprecedented move amid growing public anger over prolonged power cuts and incidents of unrest at substations, the Lucknow administration has ordered deployment of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel at 31 'sensitive' substations across the city from Saturday evening onwards.

The decision on PAC deployment was taken during a high-level review meeting on the city's power supply system on Friday after officials flagged repeated incidents of crowds gathering outside substations, obstructing repair work and allegedly threatening technical staff during outages.

Enhanced surveillance and continuous monitoring have been ordered to prevent vandalism, crowding and disruption of power restorat...