Power outages hit polls

LESCO claims it has done a wonderful job, while many citizens suffered from load shedding

LAHORE: The Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) on Wednesday failed to provide uninterrupted power supply in the provincial capital despite the claims of the federal and provincial governments.

The city, in general, faced electricity tripping the whole day and some areas even faced hours-long load-shedding. The polling agents and voters faced difficulties in performing their duties in the hot weather. Some parts of Lahore received heavy rain, which made matters worse for people due to the power outages.

In a statement, LESCO claimed it had done a wonderful job and congratulated staff. “LESCO has managed to supply electricity the whole day despite thunderstorm in few areas of its jurisdiction. Few feeders tripped which were immediately restored by the staff,” the statement read.



“We continue to face the electricity tripping, which was creating problems for us to perform our duties in this humid weather,” said a polling agent. There are four fans in this room but only one was connected with an alternative power source, so you can imagine what would be the situation inside the polling stations,” he added.

The biggest victims of power tripping are the senior citizens,” said Shahid Ali, a voter. “We have managed our time during the polling hours, but it was much harder for senior citizens to cast their vote easily, although priority was given to them,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2018.