KOHAT, Aug 31: Unannounced loadshedding in Kohat has increased due to the implementation of multiple schedules, which is creating problems for people, particularly the business community.
An official of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company said the problem had become graver as there were complaints that electricity was supplied in case of weddings and emergencies from local grids during scheduled loadshedding timings.
He said Wapda had given grid station staff a schedule of loadshedding for two hours a day which was changed every fortnight keeping in view the increase or decrease in load.
Due to unannounced and long intervals of power outages, many schoolchildren have reportedly fainted in their classrooms.
Students of nursery and class I fell unconscious and in some cases they started bleeding from their noses because of severe hot weather and suffocation, the principal of a school said.
The school administration has shortened the duration of classes to allow students to go home at 12:30.
The problem is more serious in private schools because most of them have been established in two-three room houses with no open space or playground.
The Pesco official said repair work on the outdated system was continuing in some parts of the city. Most of the time, he said, strong winds and rains damaged the system.
He said that recently a tree had fallen on a high-tension wire in the cantonment near the residence of General Officer Commanding of the IXth division of the army but the military police had refused to allow them to enter the high security zone. It had taken them two extra hours to repair the line and restore power. The army had been requested many times to allow Pesco to cut old trees, but they had paid no heed, he added.
