Power outages: Shutter-down strike, sit-ins in Kotli

Residents staged a sit-in at the central Shaheed chowk against up to 18 hours of power outages in Kotli city

MIRPUR:

Residents of Kotli on Tuesday joined in with the ongoing widespread protests against power outages across the country.

Residents observed a day-long shutter-down strike and staged a sit-in at the central Shaheed chowk against up to 18 hours of power outages in Kotli city and adjoining towns of Chakswari and Faizpur Shareef. Call for the protest demonstration was given by Kotli Youth Forum, which includes members from a diverse segment of the civil society, businessmen and lawyers.

The protesters maintained that the unscheduled and prolonged outages have paralysed their daily life. They maintained that due to power outages, the residents are not being provided water as the electricity motors remain non-functional. They said that shortage of water coupled with power outage has added to their woes.

Moreover, they accused the water tanker owners of fleecing the people by charging as high as Rs800 per tanker.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2012.