Loadshedding dampens celebrations

Tens of thousands of people face difficulties due to long hours of power outages in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

MUZAFFARABAD: Hundreds of villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) are facing perpetual darkness as they endure long hours of power outages. Tens of thousands of people face difficulties.

“I can’t afford a generator and these days I barely make any money as I can’t get much work done,” Bahir Ahmed, a tailor in the Chakothi village, told The Express Tribune.

AJK has witnessed violent protests over the long hours load shedding recently.

The long hours of loadshedding ahead of Eid dampened celebrations, “The worst effect of this power outage is on the education of our children as they cannot study due to the load shedding,” Qudoos Ali, a resident of the area, said.

‘We do not know why we are being punished, we are paying the bills but in spite of that we remain in darkness most of the time,” Fida Khan, a local shopkeeper, said.

“We don’t know the schedule of these power outages making it difficult to plan our lives around it,” Shameem Akhtar, 40, a house wife, said.

To add to the miseries of the people, the act of power theft goes unchecked by the AJK power department and is one of the main reasons that contributes to the long hours of load shedding in the region.

“When there is enough water in the region to generate electricity then why is there load shedding?” a Muhammad Saleem, a fruit vendor, asked.

Reports show that the AJK government says that the state has the potential to produce17000 mega watts of electricity but it is producing only 40 while consumption is nearly 400.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2010.