MEERUT, May 23 -- Enduring consecutive days without electricity amid failed inverters and intense indoor heat, hundreds of residents of the Ganganagar locality in Meerut ran out of patience late Thursday night and marched to the residence of mayor Harikant Ahluwalia, where they staged sit-in protest. "Our children are falling sick, and the inverters have given up," said local resident Kishan Chand. Bowing to mounting public pressure, the mayor joined the protesters on a midnight march to a local electricity substation to confront power department officials. Adding to the civic chaos, lawyers at the Meerut court complex locked out electricity department staff and placed a padlock on the local substation after the judicial area remained without power for three consecutive days. Anuj Kumar Sharma, president of the Meerut Bar Association, stated during the protest, "The heat is unbearable, local faults have continued for a week, and officials are completely unresponsive, refusing even to answer our phone calls." The situation mirrors a worsening pattern in Bareilly, where major technical failures have turned sub-stations into flashpoints of public anger. Explosions and fires broke out in heavily overloaded transformers in Kohadapir, Madihnath and Kargaina localities, cutting electricity supply to thousands of consumers and triggering panic among residents. At the Harunagla sub-station, irate residents surrounded the facility late Monday after enduring 48 separate power trippings within an 18-hour period, forcing utility staff to lock themselves inside the control room for safety. "We are forced to spend sleepless nights walking on the streets or sitting on rooftops just to breathe," said a resident of Pawan Vihar. htc...