In rage: Women take to the streets to protest power outages
Residents of Awanabad say WAPDA failed to fix faulty transformer.
The women, who belong to Awanabad locality of the city, burnt tyres and staged a sit-in on the main road. PHOTO: EXPRESS
DI KHAN:
Traffic on DI Khan-Bannu Road remained suspended for several hours on Friday as scores of women protested against prolonged power outages near Kotle Imam in DI Khan city.
The women, who belong to Awanabad locality of the city, burnt tyres and staged a sit-in on the main road. The protesters chanted slogans against the federal and provincial governments and the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) for their failure to fix a fault in the area’s transformer which has left Awanabad without power for many days.
Police arrived at the protest site after a few hours and assured the women the transformer will be fixed. Following this, the protesters dispersed peacefully.
Meanwhile, Wapda has initiated a campaign against illegal electricity connections and set up a complaint cell at Ratha Kulachi to crackdown on illegal users.
Inflated bill
A daily wage earner has sought justice from the government for being issued an inflated power bill. Ameer Khan, a resident of Baloch Nagar, told journalists on Friday that Wapda had sent him a bill of Rs756,145 for a house he previously owned.
According to Khan, he is a fruit seller and cannot afford to pay such a large sum for the house that he sold four years ago. Insisting he is not liable to make the payment, Khan requested the government to look into the matter.
Police raids
The DI Khan police conducted a search operation in various areas of the city and arrested 33 suspects, confiscating several weapons. According to a statement issued by the DPO’s office, the search op was carried out in the limits of Kulachi and Cantt police stations.
Separately, five Afghan refugees were arrested by officials of Gomal University police station for not having Proof of Registration cards.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 31st, 2015.
Traffic on DI Khan-Bannu Road remained suspended for several hours on Friday as scores of women protested against prolonged power outages near Kotle Imam in DI Khan city.
The women, who belong to Awanabad locality of the city, burnt tyres and staged a sit-in on the main road. The protesters chanted slogans against the federal and provincial governments and the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) for their failure to fix a fault in the area’s transformer which has left Awanabad without power for many days.
Police arrived at the protest site after a few hours and assured the women the transformer will be fixed. Following this, the protesters dispersed peacefully.
Meanwhile, Wapda has initiated a campaign against illegal electricity connections and set up a complaint cell at Ratha Kulachi to crackdown on illegal users.
Inflated bill
A daily wage earner has sought justice from the government for being issued an inflated power bill. Ameer Khan, a resident of Baloch Nagar, told journalists on Friday that Wapda had sent him a bill of Rs756,145 for a house he previously owned.
According to Khan, he is a fruit seller and cannot afford to pay such a large sum for the house that he sold four years ago. Insisting he is not liable to make the payment, Khan requested the government to look into the matter.
Police raids
The DI Khan police conducted a search operation in various areas of the city and arrested 33 suspects, confiscating several weapons. According to a statement issued by the DPO’s office, the search op was carried out in the limits of Kulachi and Cantt police stations.
Separately, five Afghan refugees were arrested by officials of Gomal University police station for not having Proof of Registration cards.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 31st, 2015.