June 27, 2003	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 26,1424

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KOHAT, June 26: Hundreds of women and children blocked the Kohat-Bannu Road in Chakarkot after two power breakdowns of eight-hour duration each hit different parts of the district during last 24 hours as the mercury shot up to 46 degree Celsius on Thursday evening.

The protestors burned tires and put tables and water coolers right in the middle of the road, bringing the vehicular traffic to a halt. The district coordination officer, Tariq Hayat, after holding talks with the protesters, summoned the executive engineer of Pesco and the SDO concerned and ordered them to ensure smooth supply of electricity to the city.

The city has been experiencing long power outages for the last two months with no remedy in sight despite repeated complaints having been lodged by the district government and the people of different localities with the authorities concerned.

The most affected parts are: City-1, City-2, Shakardarra, Gumbat, Hangu Road, Rawalpindi Road, KDA, Jangle Khel, Shekhan, Shahpur and adjoining tribal areas.

Talking to Dawn, Executive Engineer Shaukat Ali said that the breakdown was due to fault developed at the high-voltage line passing through the Noor Illahi Colony.

He said someone had tried to put a kunda on the high-voltage line which touched another live wire, knocking out the whole power system in the area.

He said an FIR had been lodged with the police station concerned against the person responsible for the incident.

The SDO, Urban, Mr Jaffar Ali, when contacted by Dawn, claimed that no loadshedding was being carried out in the area. He asserted that in some areas Pesco was upgrading the system according to instructions of the NWFP governor and the federal minister for water and power.

However, it has been learnt that transformers and cables at the Rawalpindi Grid installed 10 years ago now cannot withstand the load which had now increased 10 times during the period and need to be replaced with very powerful cables and transformers.