Three people were injured in the firing at protesters, who set on fire a state-owned utility's electricity transformer and a truck on Tuesday in Gorakhpur town, Uttar Pradesh state, said Surendra Srivastava, a police spokesman.

He said 11 people were arrested in Gorakhpur for blocking roads and disrupting traffic over complaints that homes have been getting power for only three hours a day.

Another eight people were arrested in Mahoba, another town in the state, for allegedly beating up government workers at a power supply center, Srivastava told The Associated Press. Other arrests were made in the state capital, Lucknow, and three other towns.

Those arrested were charged with rioting and attacking government workers, punishable by up to three years in prison.

Uttar Pradesh, home to 180 million people, is India's most populous state and one of the poorest. Its inadequate energy infrastructure has been unable to cope with the high demand for electricity as temperatures have peaked above 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) in recent days.

The power shortages have left people without air conditioning or fans _ and, in some cases, without water, as electric pumps failed _ for hours each day.

Also Tuesday, angry protesters set some government buildings on fire in Amethi, a town represented in India's Parliament by Rahul Gandhi, the son of the ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi. Traders, attorneys, teachers and students joined the protest.

Delay in monsoon rains by three weeks or more in northern India has hit power generation with water levels dropping in several dams.

"The Uttar Pradesh state gets 5,400 mega watts of electricity against its requirement of 6,200 mega watts. The paucity of 800 mega watts is leading to frequent power cuts," said Shailendra Dubey, an executive engineer with the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd.

India faces chronic power shortages amid growing demand, spurred by its rapid economic growth, and a lag in building new power stations.