Millions of Indians started lighting candles and divas on Sunday, 5th April at sharp 9 P.M as PM Narendra Modi had requested them to do so to display the will to beat COVID-19. As the clock struck 9, the whole of India was shining bright as it was nothing but candles and flashlights throughout the country. The candles and divas burnt bright till 9:09, as Modi had urged to light up candles for 9 minutes.
Most people gathered in the balcony as they flashed their torches and lit up the fireworks. Whistles accompanied this, claps, and even police sirens heard in some places.
At some places, Hindu devotional songs and religious songs were played loudly to maintain the rhythm.
The president of India, Ram Nath Kovind, also lit a candle and showed his respect and gratitude at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Influence of the Electricity board during the lights out event
According to a government official, the views out event took place as planned and even better. This didn’t disrupt the Electricity grid of the country as elaborate plans were made to prevent anything from happening.
The power minister of India, RK Singh (1), stated that the power ramp and lights out event handled very smoothly as the employees of the Electricity board tried their best to prevent anything from happening. He also stated that he and other higher officials were personally monitoring the electric supply board and the grids. He also congratulated the respective engineers who took care of this situation and even the Prime Minister and the civilians as they made this a very successful event.
According to the Power board, the power consumption in the whole country went down from 117GW to 85.30GW within five minutes. This was much greater than the expected reduction, which was around 12GW.
But, even though the power consumption fell to this extent, no incident of power failures was observed throughout the country as the engineers and other personnel gave their best to make this successful.
And finally, the people of India got their hopes back up because of this joyous occasion.
