Tough times: Consumers protest three-week gas outage

Threaten to stage sit-in if gas supply not restored soon.

FAISALABAD: Scores of residents of Kaleem Shaheed Colony, Choti Usani and Siddiqabad on Thursday staged a protest demonstration against the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) over unscheduled gas load shedding for nearly three weeks.

The protesters, including children and the elderly, gathered at Narwala Road and blocked it for traffic. The protesters chanted slogans against the government, the SNGPL and the district administration and demanded restoration of gas supply at their homes.

Qasim Ali, one of the protesters, told newsmen that no gas had been supplied to their homes for nearly three weeks. He said residents of Kaleem Shaheed Colony had complained to the SNGPL a number of times, but no one had responded.

Ruqayya Bibi, a protester from Siddiqabad, said “We will stage a sit-in at the SNGPL office on Sargodha Road if gas supply is not restored to our locality within 24 hours.”

Azam Usman, another protester, said the SNGPL had told them that the suspension of gas supply was temporary.

“In the meantime, we bought LPG gas cylinders. Three weeks have passed, gas supply has not been restored,” he said. He said, “If the government does not take notice of the situation, we will have no choice but to stage a sit-in at the SNGPL office,” he added.

Traffic on Narwala Road was suspended for several hours during the protest.

A police team visited the scene and assured the protesters that the issue would be taken up by senior officials and resolved as soon as possible. On this assurance, the protesters dispersed from the scene, threatening to return if their no action was taken was soon.

SNGPL spokesman Adnan Rafiq told The Express Tribune that the gap between demand and supply of gas had forced authorities to evolve a load management schedule. He said under the plan, the SNGPL had to suspend gas supply to some localities daily on rotation basis. He said as soon as weather improved, all consumers would get the routine gas supply.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th, 2015.