Mohali, July 1 -- It is 2.30 am on a sweltering summer night. Ordinarily, most residents would be fast asleep in the comfort of their air-conditioned rooms. Except they are not. An infant's cries can be heard somewhere in the streets. The child's hapless parents are prancing around, hoping a faint breeze will offer some relief. Across the neighbourhood, families drag charpoys outdoors, senior citizens sit awake in the darkness, and children struggle to sleep as temperatures hover near 40degC and humidity refuses to relent. For thousands of residents across Mohali district, this has become the new normal. Unplanned and prolonged power cuts over the past several days have hit Kurali, Kharar, Zirakpur, Dera Bassi and New Chandigarh, disrupting daily life, affecting businesses, interrupting water supply and leaving farmers struggling to irrigate their fields. The worst-hit has been Kurali, where residents in several localities reported electricity outages lasting more than 25 hours. In Kharar, particularly around the bus stand, residents said power supply has remained erratic since Friday. Frustration spilled onto the streets during the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday when residents of Guru Teg Bahadur Society and colonies along the Kharar-Landran and Kharar-Balongi roads gathered around 1 am to protest the prolonged outages. One group also blocked the road leading to Chandigarh. Videos of the protest and residents venting their anger over repeated outages have gone viral on social media. Among those affected was Aparna Kaushal, a resident of Housing Board, Mohali, who was visiting her parents in Kurali. Unable to bear the suffocating heat indoors, she spent the night with her five-year-old son inside the family's car with the air conditioner running. "The heat and humidity made it impossible for us to stay indoors," she said. In College Colony, Dera Bassi, electricity supply snapped at around 8 pm on Monday and was restored only around 2 pm on Tuesday, leaving residents without power for nearly 16 hours. Businesses also reported losses due to the outages. Manjeet Singh, who runs a workshop in Motor Market, Phase 7, Mohali, said, "There have been prolonged cuts over the past week. Even today, we couldn't carry on with our work for more than three hours. For businesses like ours, electricity is needed to deliver clients their cars on time." Farmers said the unscheduled cuts have come at the worst possible time. "It's paddy sowing season and we need to keep the fields irrigated. For that we need electricity. The outages mean we have to stay awake through the night waiting for power to return, and even then there is no certainty," said a farmer from the Dera Bassi area. On Monday, farmers from Fatehpur Behra blocked the road outside the Saidpura power grid for nearly two hours, demanding uninterrupted electricity supply. In Barmajra village, residents said they remained without electricity for nearly 19 hours. Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) officials said the outage followed a fire that gutted 20-25 electricity meters near Government Middle Smart School in Rajiv Colony. Mohali deputy chief engineer HS Oberoi said supply to Barmajra was restored by Tuesday afternoon. He added that apart from the fire, Mohali witnessed a sharp spike in electricity demand because of the intense heat. As part of a grid upgrade, the department commissioned the 220 kV grid, affecting supply for five to six hours in several parts of the city. In Zirakpur, residents said the outages also disrupted water supply. "It's not just the electricity issue anymore. Because of power cuts, water supply is also affected," said resident Aarti Gupta. Explaining Monday's disruption, Zirakpur executive engineer (XEN) Mandeep Singh said a 66 kV underground cable was damaged during earth excavation, causing the 66 kV Bhabat and 66 kV Ramgarh Bhudda grids to trip around 5.30 pm. "Supply to the Bhabat grid, catering to nearly 80 MVA load, was restored by 7.45 pm after isolating the damaged section," he added. A senior PSPCL official said the recent unscheduled outages in parts of Zirakpur were primarily caused by damage to 220 kV transmission towers near Rajpura during a recent thunderstorm. The load was diverted to the Banur line while repairs were underway, necessitating rotational power cuts to prevent overloading. The Rajpura fault was rectified on Tuesday, after which the scattered outages in Bhabat, Baltana and other areas were resolved....