Cricket or “culture”, they tend to turn pitch dark without notice in Calcutta. A power failure blanketed the Book Fair at Milon Mela in black today,

Cricket or “culture”, they tend to turn pitch dark without notice in Calcutta.

A power failure blanketed the Book Fair at Milon Mela in black today, leaving one lakh visitors shocked and scared about security, publishers fuming and wary of thefts, and the organisers red-faced.

The lights that went off at 6.40pm across the fairground did not return in most stalls till the 8pm closure, while some others flickered back to life for about 20 minutes before darkness descended again.

After the Eden Gardens lights fiasco during an ODI last month, the police commissioner had threatened to stop floodlit matches there till the fault was corrected. It remains to be seen if the police will now withhold permission to the fair, an event close to the chief minister’s heart, using the same yardstick of public safety as they had done at the Eden where 50,000 people were present.

South 24-Parganas superintendent of police L.N. Meena merely said: “I will certainly order a probe.”

The West Bengal Trade Promotion Organisation (WBTPO), in charge of infrastructure at Milon Mela, claimed the ground’s transformer had tripped after too much power was drawn.

An Oxford University Press official said: “The stall was jam-packed when the lights went out; there was chaos and jostling. There could have been a stampede.”

What saved the day were the generator-run halogen lights illuminating the pathways. Tens of thousands came out of the dark stalls and stood helpless on the pathways even as stall owners scrambled to check their bags for possible theft at the exit points in semi-darkness.

“With a teenaged daughter and six-year-old son, I did not feel it safe to stay on,” said Gautam Bose from Behala.

A handful of stalls towards the eastern end, put up by publishers who are not members of the fair organisers, Publishers and Book Sellers Guild, suffered for about 20 minutes but ended the day with the lights on.

The WBTPO and the guild blamed each other. The trade organisation said the new transformer could only supply 1,250 kilovolt-amperes (KVA) but the fair had drawn 1,377KVA.

The guild said it was not aware it had drawn more than the 1,250KVA limit. “There may have been a problem; we are not sure what it was,” guild vice-president Suprakash Basu said.

WBPTO officials said they had written to the guild for funds to arrange for powerful generators but received no reply; the guild said it had replied but the WBPTO had prepared no back-up.

“In 2009 we had arranged for our own transformer (of 2,250KVA capacity) and there was no tripping. This is ridiculous,” guild general secretary Tridib Chatterjee said.

“Who will compensate us for the loss of business? The guild?” asked Dipankar Acharya of Bikas Grantha Bhavan. “They call this an international fair?” said CU research fellow Sayanti Poddar.

The dancers at theme-country stall Mexico were changing between recitals when the lights went off. “The girls didn’t know how to react. Their Mexican co-ordinator was shocked,” a stall worker said.

An official of power supplier CESC said: “The transformer is not our responsibility.” Till late tonight, CESC and WBTPO engineers were trying to fix the fault.

No theft was reported but a salesman at a sweets stall said: “Many customers left in the dark without paying.”

It was, however, advertisement time for Microtek’s inverter stall. “See how our lights are providing back-up,” a salesman gloated, hoping the other stalls would now buy his products.
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