KARACHI: Power cuts provoke people of Liaquatabad to protest
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, June 13: Enraged consumers of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation in Liaquatabad took to the streets to protest against prolonged power breakdowns on Saturday night.
An official of the Super Market police station told Dawn that angry area residents had burnt tyres on roads and chanted slogans against the KESC which had failed to restore electricity to their locality after a lapse of a couple of hours.
A spokesman for the KESC explained that a transformer supplying electricity to the locality near Sindhi Hotel in Liaquatabad was repaired at around 9pm. "The area remained without electricity for at least six hours. But this much time is required to repair a transformer," he said.
The KESC spokesman added that no major power breakdown occurred on Sunday. Shaukat Ali, a resident of Garden East, told Dawn that his locality was without electricity for over 14 hours. "Our area lost power supply at around 4am on Sunday.
The power supply was finally restored at 6pm. We started dialling the telephone number of our complaint centre (9215200) at 8.15am but never got through because the number remained unattended," he said.
A resident of North Karachi, Sector 7/D-2, said that his locality experienced at least two power breakdowns every day. "On Saturday, the first electricity breakdown occurred at 7.30pm.
The power supply was restored at 8.15pm, only to break off after an hour. The second power breakdown lasted for more than two hours. On Sunday too, the first power breakdown occurred at 5.30pm which was restored at 6pm. The second power breakdown started at 7pm and continued till 8.15pm," he said.
A resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal's block-14 said that his area remained without electricity for at least four hours on Sunday. "Our regional complaint centre says that some maintenance work is being carried out. But there is no shutdown notice about this maintenance work in newspapers," he said.
A complainant from Model Colony told Dawnthat his locality had been experiencing power breakdowns for the last many days. "Last year, the area residents took to the streets against prolonged power breakdowns in their locality.
The KESC should be afraid of public anger which might against force the residents of Model Colony to resort to protest," he said. A resident of Shadman Town, Sector 14/A, said that his locality remained without electricity for more than five hours on Saturday. He added that the power breakdown started at 1.30pm and continued till 7pm.
DRIVE LAUNCHED: The KESC has launched a new drive in Pak Kausar Town, Malir, where kunda connections will be replaced by metered connections, adds APP. Formally inaugurating the new connection scheme in Pak Kausar Town, Malir Town Nazim Navedul Islam said that the city government was making all possible efforts to provide basic amenities including power supply by coordinating with the KESC and other civic agencies.
He appreciated the efforts of KESC engineers and staff for preparing the Rs1.65 million scheme under which the corporation would bear 40 per cent of the total cost while the area residents would have to pay 60 per cent of the amount in easy instalments.
He assured of his full cooperation in implementing this scheme and urged area residents to cooperate with the KESC. KESC Zonal Manager A.R. Solangi said that the KESC would provide legal connections to some 150 houses in the locality, which had been using electricity through illegal connections for the last two years.
"Now it is the duty of consumers to reciprocate the same by paying their bills on time," he said. Malir Town Naib Nazim Muhammad Waseem Mirza also spoke on the occasion.
