As power supply remains suspended at the Cantt Railway Station since five days, railway employees have threatened to stop train services if electricity is not restored immediately.
Media Coordinator Muhammad Riaz Kashmeri said that workers staged a protest on Sunday against the electricity suspension and stopped the Khyber Mail train. If electricity is not restored until Tuesday, train services will be halted, he said.
Railway Workers Union (RWU) representative, Saeed Ashafaq Hussain Bacha, said that power supply has been cut at the Station Colony, Police Colony, Washing Land Colony as well as the Railway Hospital. This had also led to an acute water shortage.
The Peshawar Electricity Supply Company (Pesco) says that power supply has been cut over non-payment of dues, which amount to Rs9 million.
However, residents claim that their electricity bill is being deducted from their monthly salaries. Bacha said that railway authorities have paid dues for October.
Kashmeri said that there are 700 residential quarters in the colony without electricity. “We have no potable water and our children are ill because of hygiene problems,” he said, adding that clean water has to be brought from other areas.
An official of the railway administration claimed that they have paid Rs5 million to Pesco, with Rs4 million given this month. He added that the administration has discussed the matter with Pesco and that power will soon be restored.
Pesco spokesperson Shaukat Afzal had earlier said that they have closed 55 tube wells in different parts of the country, which will not be restored till all dues are cleared.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 23rd, 2012.
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