Laid off mill workers protest power cuts

Rice mill workers, who lost jobs due to load-shedding, stage a demonstration and sit-in outside Thul Press Club.

SUKKUR: Rice mill workers, who lost their jobs due to unannounced load-shedding, staged a demonstration and sit-in outside Thul Press Club.

The protesters, led by Mazdoor Labour Union, shouted slogans against the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco), burnt tyres and blocked the road for two hours.

“There are 80 rice mills in Thul taluka and thousands of labourers are working in these rice mills,” said the labour leaders. “Sepco has been conducting 16 to 18 hours of unannounced load-shedding, due to which business activities in the area have come to a grinding halt and hundreds of workers have been rendered jobless.”

They said, despite repeated complaints and protests, Sepco authorities are ignoring their problem. The leaders even went on to accuse the local Sepco officers of corruption and encouraging power theft.

“We have already lost everything to the flash floods and now we have lost our jobs,” said a worker.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2011.