17 July 2004	Saturday	28 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, July 16: Many areas of the city remained in the grip of prolonged power breakdowns on Friday, while the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation made no effort to ensure uninterrupted supply to its consumers.

North Nazimabad Blocks L and H remained without electricity for more than nine hours on Friday. Despite repeated telephone calls on the KESC complaint centre's telephone numbers, 6648873 and 6618205, there was no response, angry residents of the area told Dawn by telephone.

A resident of the area alleged that despite the allotment of a complaint no (42) from 118, the power was not restored to the area till 6pm. In block L, power supply resumed at about 6:30pm but went off three hours later. It was not restored till midnight.

The long duration of the power suspension also disrupted water supply in many localities, where residents had to remain without water for hours. An indignant resident of Gulistan-i-Jauhar's Block 17 said that while his locality experienced frequent power breakdowns, the residents of Askari-IV led a life untrammelled by the power cuts.

"A friend of mine who lives in Askari-IV said that since servicemen live in the locality, the army-run KESC did its utmost to provide it uninterrupted power supply," he alleged, adding that his locality remained without electricity for at least four hours on Friday.

Calling from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 4-A, which is also called Journalists' Society, a resident said that some houses in the locality experienced individual complaints, which were not being attended to by the KESC.

Sources in the KESC's centralized complaint centre, better known as 118, said that complaints regarding power failures had been received from Nazimabad, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, North Nazimabad, Korangi, North Karachi, Abyssinia Line, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, New Karachi, Saddar and Malir A-area.

A KESC spokesman said steps were being taken to make complaint centres more efficient, adding on Friday action was taken against six officials for a serious dereliction of duty.

He said that the Rashid Minhas Shaheed feeder of the KESC developed some fault on Friday morning. When the load was shifted to another feeder, it tripped, he said. A transformer in North Karachi had tripped in the afternoon, disconnecting the power supply to many areas.