19 September 2004	Sunday	03 Shaban 1425

KARACHI, Sept 18: Motorists and commuters suffered worst traffic jam as protesters staged a demonstration at Habib Bank chowrangi in SITE, on Saturday, against the discontinuation of electricity supply to their locality.

The protesters pelted the moving vehicles with stones and lit bonfire on the main thoroughfare near Habib Bank chowrangi. The traffic coming from SITE and Nazimabad remained jammed for three hours.

A motorist said that he left the factory, where he worked, around 4pm and remained stuck for more than two hours in the traffic while heading towards Habib Bank chowrangi. "My car did not move an inch for two hours," he remarked.

A minibus passenger said that the bus was trapped in the flood of vehicles for a couple of hours. He said that the passengers in hot and humid weather were perturbed over the traffic jam, which also led to some small quarrels.

According to the protesters, they were residents of Sultanabad No 3, Manghopir. They said that their locality, a cooperative housing society, was being supplied electricity through three pole-mounted transfers. They complained that the locality had been without electricity for the last many days, but, the KESC did not repair the PMT.

SITE Town Police Officer Imran Shaukat told Dawn that police reached the area, where protest demonstration was being held. He said that the police informed the KESC officials about the situation and arranged their meeting with the representatives of protesters.

He said that the protesters dispersed peacefully after reaching an agreement with the KESC officials. Thereafter, he said that the road was cleared and the traffic was allowed to move. Due to the long queues of vehicles in all directions, it took some time to clear the traffic mess.

Meanwhile, the KESC announced on Saturday that the power supply of Sultanabad Cooperative Society, Manghopir Road, would be cut by the next Wednesday for non-payment of electricity dues since December 2003 amounting around Rs10 million.

A spokesman for the KESC said that the power utility had surveyed the area on news reports about massive "kunda" connections. The survey revealed that 4,000 units in Sultanabad Society were consuming electricity directly from the KESC lines.

The KESC immediately brought the matter to the notice of the area nazim and the relevant provincial and federal authorities.

Finally, in December 2003 KESC installed meters on the three pole-mounted transformers serving the area. The consumption recorded on the three PMT meters totalled over 2.055 million units costing Rs7.33 million up to May 2004, while supply to the area was still continuing.

Due to over-loading of one of the PMTs with excessive hook connections, the PMT has burnt out five times in a month causing Rs1.2 million loss to the KESC for replacing five PMTs.

Recently, the same PMT burnt again and its replacement was made conditional by the KESC to the payment of electricity dues.

In case payment of the December 2003 to May 2004 consumption is not forthcoming, the KESC has decided to disconnect the remaining two PMTs of the area to prevent shifting of the burnt- out PMT consumers on the other two PMTs, KESC spokesman added.