KARACHI: People suffer night-long electricity breakdown
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 31: No heads will roll for a dereliction of duty in the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation despite a nightlong power shutdown in nearly all parts of the city.
Residents calling from a large number of city areas told Dawn that the KESC would put forward one reason or another for the power shutdown as though it would make up for the anguish and agony that they had had to go through all night long.
They also demanded an apology, rather than an explanation, from the KESC for keeping the transmission and distribution system so dilapidated that it took little to go haywire.
An official at the Edhi mortuary, the only mortuary in the city, told Dawn that they had experienced power shutdowns two times.
“The Edhi mortuary is the only place in the city where bodies are not only kept for some time but also shrouded and buried free,” he said, adding that in the event of a prolonged power shutdown it became difficult for the mortuary to keep the bodies from decomposing.
A survey carried out by Dawn also revealed that nearly all hospitals, government or otherwise, had experienced power shutdowns. At any rate, the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Civil Hospital and Dr Ziauddin Hospital had been without electricity at varying intervals. While the private hospitals made use of electric generators, patients in need of extensive care at the government hospitals writhed in agony.
Officials at various hospitals told Dawn that most health centres had generators which helped them cushion the effect of power breakdowns. But, they added, some government hospitals could not run their generators more than a few hours.
An irate consumer, calling from North Nazimabad, Block H, argued that the transmission and distribution system of the KESC could not work in any season. “When it rains, the KESC feeders trip and the power utility admits its system cannot withstand rains. When the mercury goes up, the KESC feeders trip and the power utility admits its system cannot withstand heat. When winter tries to set in, or fog comes into being for any reason, the KESC feeders trip and the power utility admits its system cannot withstand the fog. Now, the KESC system cannot work in any season and Nature cannot design any another season for the KESC,” he observed.
A resident of Gulistan-i-Jauher, Block 16, told Dawn that phones at his complaint centre had been incessantly engaged. “The complaint centre of my area has two telephone numbers — 8117884 and 8119668 — but both of them remained engaged all the time. The officials had probably left the phones off the hook. Even phones at the centralized complaint centre 118 were busy all the time,” he said.
Calling from Federal B. Area, a resident said that phones at army-monitored 134 had been engaged. “The army has miserably failed to effect a turnaround in the KESC. Apart from hogging all important posts, the army has done nothing. Furthermore, it is not accountable to anybody. It has failed to check power pilferage and other vices,” he said.
However, a press release issued by the KESC claimed that only 30 per cent of power supply to the city had been disrupted due to trippings of 220-KVA Extra High Tension transmission lines between KDA-Baldia-Pipri West-Bin Qasim caused by dense fog in the early morning hours.
