19 June 2004	Saturday	30 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

KARACHI, June 18: While the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation claimed that the number of power breakdowns came down to 1,500, the consumers held that the power utility did not register complaints either by keeping its phones engaged or by leaving them unattended.

A KESC spokesman said that the number of complaints had come down from 3,500, a couple of days ago, to 1,500. He added that every time power demand exceeded 2,000 megawatts, "the KESC had to resort to load management" - a newly-coined euphemism for loadshedding.

A resident calling from Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Block 16, told Dawn that he had faced a power shutdown at 11.30am which was restored at 4pm. "I kept calling the localized KESC complaint centre, but their phones remained engaged all the time.

Since nobody can use a phone for such a long time, one can easily draw the conclusion that they left the phone off the hook. It is strange that the KESC high-ups do not randomly check whether these complaint centres are properly doing their jobs or not," he said.

A resident of Gulzar-i-Hijri told Dawn that the previous night the entire area had been without electricity for more than three hours. Residents of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Blocks 14, told Dawn that the previous night their areas had been without power for more than five hours.

"Living in apartments, we cannot even go to our roof to spend the night. We had no option but to stay indoors and toss and turn in beds, as our locality remained without electricity," he said.

Residents of Federal B Area, Blocks 17, 18, 19, told Dawn that their area had been receiving erratic power supply ever since the KESC had undertaken some repair operation in their locality.

The spokesman said that consumers should be advised to use less electricity. "It has been estimated that last year at least 225,000 air-conditioners were added to the system. If KESC consumers use one bulb and one air-conditioner sparingly, they can save at least 500 megawatts," he said.