Power outages prompt corruption inquiry

CM says officials are already under investigation for alleged corruption.

GILGIT: Chief Minister Gilgit-Baltistan Mehdi Shah has said that an inquiry will be launched into the usage of substandard transformers for the distribution of power in the region.

“We will inquire and certainly take action against those responsible,” Mehdi Shah told The Express Tribune via phone from Islamabad after his attention was drawn towards an increasing number of short circuits being developed in transformers in Gilgit-Baltistan.

The region has been experiencing severe power outages since November as a result of a sharp decline in temperature. The situation is likely to persist until April when the weather conditions start to improve. Incidents of short-circuit of transformers are frequent, and most of the time it takes around a week to get a transformer replaced or repaired.

According to officials, there are nearly 100 distribution transformers in the town, with an average capacity of 50 KVA each. Of these only a dozen are of good quality while the standard of the rest is below par.

Mehdi Shah said that officials in the public works department are already under investigation.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2011.