CHITRAL, March 31: Chitral has been receiving rainfall and the upper parts of the district have received more than two feet of snow till the filing of this report.

Educational institutions remained closed while attendance in government offices remained thin on Saturday. The bazaars wore a deserted look as the people remained confined to their homes. Vehicular traffic to and from the city was also badly affected.

As a snowstorm hit the district, the Peshawar Electric Supply Company could not restore power supply to the area which was disconnected two weeks ago. Snowfall badly damaged the electricity distribution network, with more than 200 poles being uprooted during the storm.

The length of the transmission line is more than 300km while the number of damaged transformers is said to be more than 25. The city is without power supply for more than two weeks but the Pesco has yet to take any corrective steps.

The tehsil municipal administration (TMA) initiated the work of rehabilitation by erecting the fallen poles and laying the snapped wires, managing to restore supply to the DHQ hospital and a small number of houses nearby. The scouts, police and district border police aided the TMA in the task, while volunteers from the nearby villages helped them.

Criticising the chief of Pesco, tehsil nazim of Chitral Sartaj Ahmed Khan said the company was paying no heed to the problems confronted by the consumers of Chitral. Talking to Dawn here on Saturday, he claimed that the TMA had obtained permits from the Afghan consulate in Peshawar for the transportation of poles, cables and transformers to Chitral via Afghanistan but the CEO was resorting to delaying tactics.