KARACHI, Aug 3: Perturbed by the lingering power crisis, people staged protest demonstrations at various places here on Thursday against the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation for poor performance, while the power utility claimed that 98 per cent of the complaints were attended and power supply restored.
The intensity of the power failures though minimized to a larger extent, but some areas are still affected and people are angry over the delay in resumption of power supply to their respective localities.
Residents of Railway Colony, I I Chundrigar Road and the adjoining localities attacked the office of the KESC on Elander Road here on Thursday. The enraged consumers were the victims of hours-long power failures in their respective localities. Their action was in fact a reaction to the inordinate delay in responding to their complaints by the KESC staff.
Various localities connected to Elander Road grid station were without power for a long duration and the consumers were fed up with it. In utter frustration, they expressed their anger by attacking the KESC office. The mob ransacked some sections of the office and also roughed up the staff members. The people left the scene before the police reached there.
Besides, irate consumers in Baldia Town, Frontier Colony, Pak Colony, Miranaka in Lyari and Sultanabad on M.T. Khan Road took to the streets and staged protests against the power utility. They chanted slogans against the KESC and lit bonfire. KESC spokesman Sultan Hasan said that some consumers attacked the KESC's office around 2:30pm on Elander Road. They roughed up the staff, ransacked some portions and later dispersed.
Briefing the newsmen at the KESC head office, he said the incident had annoyed the KESC staff at the office. However, the senior officers encouraged the staff to get back to the affected areas to rectify the faults, he informed.
Mr Hasan said that most of the areas in the city were energised and some parts were without power. The KESC staff was at work round-the-clock to detect cable faults and rectify them at the earliest.
“We have replaced 17 PMTs and rectified 24 sub-stations. Besides, we first removed all faults on extra-high tension lines and distribution network. Now some localised faults are left and they are being rectified”, he added.
In order to motivate the staff, he said that the management had decided to give away trophy to the best performing zone on the basis of consumers’ feedback. The city is divided into three zones by the KESC to manage the distribution system. Besides, the management was considering disbursing certificates and cash awards to individuals over their splendid performances, he added.
People in other areas were frustrated over the frequent and prolonged power failures in their respective localities and asked the government to take a serious note of the power crisis in the city and take effective measures instead of doing mere lip-service.
Abdul Ghaffar from Jacoblines in Lines Area said that the power supply remained suspended since 6am on Wednesday, and despite the lapse of 36 hours, the power supply was not restored. He said that the centralised complaint number 118 and the area complaint numbers remained busy or were not unattended.
An angry consumer from Raja Tanveer Colony in Ittehad Town said that the residents of his locality were without power since morning. The prolonged power failure ended Wednesday evening and the power supply was again suspended in the morning. The KESC did not heed to consumers’ complaints, he added.
Dost Mohammad and Bashir, owners of Iqbal Silk Mills and Delta Apparels said that their factories, connected to Jubilee Spinning feeder, were without power since Sunday. They have made several complaints but the power supply was not restored and they were suffering heavy losses, they added.
KARACHI, Aug 3: Perturbed by the lingering power crisis, people staged protest demonstrations at various places here on Thursday against the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation for poor performance, while the power utility claimed that 98 per cent of the complaints were attended and power supply restored.
