Lucknow, March 15 -- Hundreds of consumers gathered at the electricity department's grievance redressal centre in Indralok, on Saturday, staging a protest over issues linked to smart meters and the recently implemented "vertical system." The crowd at the Indralok Samadhan Kendra cornered officials, filed complaints, and demanded immediate resolution of their problems. Around 1,500 consumers are facing a blackout despite depositing the amount of prepaid meters, but their connection is yet to be connected. Many consumers alleged that even after clearing their pending electricity bills, power connections are not being restored for several hours. Sunita Kashyap, a resident of Sharda Nagar subdivision, claimed she paid her outstanding bill around 2:30 pm on Saturday but her electricity connection had not been restored hours later. In another case that has gone viral on social media, a consumer named Manoj Kumar said his electricity connection remained disconnected despite making the payment. According to him, when officials were contacted, they repeatedly responded that the power would be restored "soon," but no concrete action was taken. They argued that while power distribution companies are meant to serve the public, ordinary consumers are facing the brunt of administrative lapses. Many residents complained that they are forced to make repeated visits to electricity offices for days to resolve basic issues....