Outages : Power protests in city make commute difficult

Residents say both water, electricity not available during Ramazan.

PESHAWAR: Protests continued in parts of the province on Monday against prolonged and unscheduled power outages as authorities failed to respond to the situation.

The breakdowns paralysed routine life in Ramazan, while ongoing protests created difficulties for commuters who were stranded on the roadside.

Taps blow air

While speaking to The Express Tribune, a local, Khazana Amir Alam, said consumers faced up to 20 hours of load-shedding in a day. “We are suffering from an acute water shortage due to these outages. There is not even enough water to take a bath or drink,” he said. Locals said they fetched water from nearby wells as the commodity was scarce.

Protesters came from various towns of Peshawar, including Nasapa, Khazana, Hindki Daman and Kankula.

Clogged routes

Charsadda Road remained blocked from 8am to 2pm. The protesters burnt tyres during the demonstration and chanted slogans against Pesco and Wapda officials.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has been facing a critical power crisis since the beginning of Ramazan and complaints were registered from all areas covered by Pesco. Federal Minister for Water & Power Khwaja Asif tweeted on social media on Sunday night that there would be no power outages from Monday onwards. He also said there would be no load-shedding during Sehr and Iftar. However, those vows have yet to see the light of day.

PESCO Spokesperson Shaukat Afzal told The Express Tribune areas from where protesters hailed had 65-91% line losses. He said over 65% of the people were illegally consuming electricity without paying bills. “They will have to bear unscheduled power outages,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan People’s Party former MNA Noor Alam Khan rejected Pesco’s claim that consumers are not paying their bills. He belongs to Khazana and slammed the administration for blaming the victims. “Over 70% of consumers in the area are paying bills on a regular basis,” he said.

The locals threatened to continue the protests if the issue persisted. The residents claimed their electricity was illegally supplied to areas of Gulberg and Swati village which caused prolonged power outages in Charkhana. At the same time, a resident of Gulberg, Fazal Maula, said their electricity was being stolen by Charkhana’s consumers through illegal connections.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2016.