September 26, 2008	Friday	Ramazan 25, 1429

BADIN, Sept 25: At a time when Eidul Fitr is just round the corner, people of Badin are forced to endure prolonged outages for the last four days as the power utility is undertaking repair and maintenance of the main line.

Apart from routine faults, the Hyderabad Electricity Supply Company (Hesco) is resorting to around six hours of load-shedding daily from 10am to 4pm.

Criticising the ‘untimely’ maintenance work being carried out by the power utility, a large number of people in Badin said that the situation had compounded their problems. First of all, they said, the Hesco should not have resorted to load-shedding during Ramazan and at a time when commercial activities were gaining momentum these outages would ruin everything.

As a matter of fact, power cuts affect all and sundry but the professionals like tailors and shopkeepers etc are the worst-hit lot.

Besides, these prolonged outages are also affecting patients admitted to various hospitals across the city.

On the other hand, due to these ongoing power breakdowns, water supply to the city has also been affected.

Residents of various localities complained that the process of restoration of power supply was also very slow.

Tanveer Ahmed Arain of the Sindh People’s Youth Organisation (SPYO) urged the relevant authorities to conduct a probe into the unannounced load-shedding being carried out in Badin and to take immediate action to ensure an uninterrupted power supply to the city.

Despite repeated attempts, this writer failed to get a feedback on the prevailing situation from any relevant Hesco official.