August 06, 2007	Monday	Rajab 21, 1428

VEHARI, Aug 5: People in various parts of the district have protested against unannounced loadshedding the duration of which is increasing with every passing day. The business community finds itself in a particularly difficult situation as most of the people prefer not to go shopping, especially when the weather is sultry. Prolonged outages also cause inconvenience to the students and office-goers.

The protesters allege that the Mepco Vehari circle authorities are resorting to loadshedding for four to five hours daily despite clear-cut instructions by the Wapda chairman to observe loadshedding for half an hour at the most in a locality.

At rural areas the situation is even worse and all routine activities come to a halt. There is no schedule for loadshedding in Machiwal and Luddan Karampur as well.

Residents of Machiwal complained that prolonged power cut-offs had led to shortage of water for drinking and crops. Visitors to the rural health centres and basic health units, they said, had to wait for hours to see doctors.

As the farmers don’t get enough water for fields, reports of loss of crops have become too frequent.

Kissan Board Pakistan district president Jawed Husain Shah said while talking to Dawn the government had failed to make up for the electricity shortfall during the last seven years.

Various trade organisations have taken exception to the Mepco’s failure to follow instructions of the higher-ups, warning that they would go on strike if the loadshedding was not brought to an end.

The Mepco Vehari circle executive engineer told Dawn that they were following the directions of the Regional Control Centre, Islamabad.