LAHORE: The city woke up to face a predicament on Sunday as people finding suspension of gas supply to their houses had to rush to ovens and restaurants for food while some looked for firewood shops and LPG outlets for making alternative arrangements for running their cooking affairs.

There were also reports of protest demonstrations, mostly participated in by women, in various localities of the city.

Rush of people was witnessed at a number of ovens/shops, especially in those localities where the people have been without gas supply for about a week.

Since the SNGPL authorities said the situation would persist till Tuesday morning on account of repair work of a boiler at the Sui plant and a 16-inch diameter pipeline damaged in Saturday’s fire incident, the people have started buying LPG cylinders to at least continue cooking.

“As the shortfall has increased to over 1600mmcfd due to the fire incident and the repair work will take at least 24 to 36 hours, we request our valuable consumers to consume minimum gas to avoid extreme low pressure. Please, also adopt safety precautions before using gas appliances,” an SNGPL spokesman told Dawn on Sunday.

He said the situation would become better with the completion of the repair work when the 240mmcfd of gas was added to the system.

The worst-affected localities in Lahore were Township, Valencia Town, Gulberg, Wapda Town, some blocks of Johar Town, Multan Road and its adjacent localities, Shadman, Garden Town, Samanabad, Kot Kamboh, Sabzazar, Marghazar, Defence, Cantonment, Mughalpura, Begum Kot, Sodiwal, Garhi Shahu, Shahdara, Iqbal Parks, Chauburji and Jain Mandar.

“We have been left with no option but learn to live in a stone-age like situation. You can see many people have gathered at ovens and restaurants to buy bread and food,” said Sultan Nazir, a resident of Township.

He said the situation was more difficult for the elderly people who could hardly afford to use cold water in such harsh weather conditions.

“In the absence of gas, our geyser is inoperative, causing problems for my parents who are forced to do ablution with cold water. Even living without heater is very difficult for them,” he said adding that he might have to buy electric stove and geyser if the situation persisted.

He said some neighbors had also purchased LPG cylinders after they faced problems in cooking food on firewood.

He urged the government to at least ensure gas supply to domestic consumers so that they could cook food.

SUNDAY BAZAARS: Prices of a majority of vegetables and fruits continued to be increased in all Sunday bazaars of the city.

According to officials, a team noted the increase in prices of 12 of the total 31 vegetables available in those bazaars. Prices of 11 vegetables showed a slight decrease.

There was increase in prices of 12 fruits while prices of another 12 fruits remained static, the officials said.

Meanwhile, DCO retired Captain Muhammad Usman says the CDGL will establish Christmas bazaars on Monday (today) at various parts of the city.

He advised the officials to ensure provision of eatables to Christians at cheaper rates.

ETPB: Authorities of the Evacuee Trust Property Board have decided to make pictures and videos of its all empty land throughout the country.

According to a spokesman, the core objective of picturizing the state land was not only to save it from land-grabbers but also to launch welfare projects for minorities, mainly Sikhs and Hindus.

Published in Dawn, December 22th, 2014