Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister Senthil Balaji has invited controversy over his remarks on the power outages that the state has been witnessing for the past few days. While addressing the reporters, the minister had listed out the reasons for the power outages and one of his reasons was a blame on squirrels for causing disruptions in the electricity supply. 

Senthil Balaji's remarks had served as a treat for the trollers as the social media pages seen a barrage of trolls and memes against the minister for saying that squirrels had caused power outages as they run on the power lines. He said that squirrels would climb the power cables and run on them and it is one of the reasons why there are frequent power outages. 

Addressing a press briefing, Senthil Balaji said, "In certain places, power outages occur when two cables come into contact due to squirrels running on the power cable while the tree branches rub onto the other line." He further accused the previous ADMK regime of not initiating maintenance work and said this had led to frequent power cuts. 

The visuals of his 'squirrel' remarks have been going viral on social media and several social media users had trolled the minister and there were over 12,000 tweets connected to the matter on Wednesday. The opposition parties and critics have been trolling the ruling party for the minister's comments and sarcastically asked whether the population of squirrels had increased after the DMK formed the government. 

Several social media users had compared Senthil Balaji's remarks to what the then ADMK Minister Sellur Raju had done during the previous regime. Sellur Raju had attempted to cover a dam with thermocol sheets to prevent the evaporation of water. Raju and officials had surfaced many sheets on the water, but the project was an utter flop, as the sheets were blown ashore before Raju had returned to the shore. 

Sellur Raju was one of the ADMK ministers who had gone through severe trolls while in power and the netizens had now compared Senthil Balaji's remarks to that of Sellur Raju's flopped project. In what has become the first major controversy against the DMK government since it came to power, the opposition parties had made better use of it to voice against the DMK. 

Trolling Senthil Balaji, PMK founder Dr. S Ramadoss, an ally of the opposition ADMK, took to Twitter and wrote, "Squirrels run over the power lines where they touch the cable, causing a power outage, says Electricity Minister Senthil Balaji! Science...Science." In another tweet in the same thread, Ramadoss asked, "What could be the mystery for power cuts in Chennai nowadays? Maybe squirrels are running underground in Chennai? #Doubt'. 

Senthil Balaji's comments have come after there were reports of increased power cuts across the state since the DMK had come to power. Later, speaking at the assembly, Senthil Balaji had said that the previous ADMK regime had not carried out due maintenance work for Electricity board connections. He stated that there would be no power cuts after the maintenance works were performed. 

The ADMK, however, said that Tamil Nadu was a power surplus state during its rule and it had effectively carried out the power demand. On the other hand, several people had begun delving into whether squirrels cause the power outage. According to a fact-checking website, Senthil Balaji had said that squirrels may be one of the reasons for the outage but the opposition parties had twisted the statement and circulated their version that the minister said squirrels are the only reason for the electricity outage. 

It further said that during 2021 state assembly polls, there was a power outage in the Gobichettipalayam constituency and it has come to the revelation that a squirrel got stuck in a transformer and caused a power outage post which the electricity employees had removed the squirrel and resorted the issue. Squirrels had accounted for a significant amount of power outage in western countries.  

According to Washington Post, squirrels account for 9-21% of all power outages in the United States. Though such outages are not frequent in Tamil Nadu, the experts say it completely can't be denied. Senthil Balaji cited squirrel as one of the examples of the power outage that would emerge due to non-maintenance and the overall power outage is not due to squirrels. 

சென்னையில் இப்போதெல்லாம் அடிக்கடி மின் தடை ஏற்படுவதன் மர்மம் என்னவாக இருக்கும்? ஒருவேளை சென்னையில் அணில்கள் பூமிக்கு அடியில் ஓடுகின்றனவோ?#Doubt

— Dr S RAMADOSS (@drramadoss) June 22, 2021