Angry residents took to the streets of Sukkur in protest when they were forced to brave undeclared power cuts as well as scheduled load-shedding on the first day of Ramazan despite promises of reduced outages. PHOTO: EXPRESS
SUKKUR: Tall claims were made about providing relief from load-shedding in the holy month of Ramazan this year, especially during Sehr, Iftar and Taraweeh, but these promises proved hollow as residents were made to suffer undeclared power cuts in addition to scheduled load-shedding.
The residents of upper Sindh heaved a sigh of relief when the federal minister of water and power announced a reduced load-shedding schedule for Ramazan. However, they were forced to brave power outages on the very first day of the holy month, along with the tripping of electric feeders and technical faults. In response, they took to the streets in protest.
Before Ramazan, urban and rural areas were experiencing 12 to 18 hours of load-shedding and after the federal minister's announcement people were expecting some respite in the load-shedding schedule. Frequent outages, the tripping of feeders and technical faults shattered their hopes. Pole-mounted transformers in many areas have stopped working and despite the lapse of four to 10 days, the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) officials are not ready to repair them without receiving bribes.
Residents converged at a Sepco office after a transformer on Bunder Road stopped working six days ago. They were asked to pay a bribe of Rs40,000 for its repair, according to a protester, Muhammad Moin. In protest, they blocked the road and the police had to be called in.
After charging at the protesters with batons, the police arrested some protesters and took them to the B-Section police station where they allegedly snatched mobile phones and wallets from them. The arrested persons were released on the intervention of a trade body and the non-functional transformer was replaced on Saturday morning, after giving a bribe of Rs20,000. Sepco superintendent engineer Akhtar Nabi Dogar claimed, however, that the money was for repair costs
During a recent visit of the power minister to Sukkur around 10 to 12 days ago, The Express Tribune drew his attention towards the Site grid station's out-of-order transformer. The then Sepco chief, Farmanullah Khan, had said that the transformer had arrived and would be installed within the next couple of days but the transformer has yet to be installed.
The Sepco public relations officer, Noor Ahmed Soomro, said that the transformer has arrived after reclamation but some of its parts are missing. He said it will be installed as soon as the parts are sent to Sukkur. Regarding the power crisis, he said the grid stations are overloaded and that they are getting 765MW compared to the residents' demand of 1,170MW. Soomro claimed that the situation will become better after the installation of the reclaimed transformer.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 21st, 2015.
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