HYDERABAD: After seeing no end to their agony, frustrated consumers took to the streets again and protested in several parts of the province on the third consecutive day on Sunday against prolonged loadshedding and a consequent shortage of water.

In Hyderabad, residents of Hirabad, Hala Naka, Latifabad Unit-4 and 5 and Tando Wali Mohammad burnt tyres and garbage on roads and raised hurdles at main roundabouts to block vehicular traffic as they demonstrated against outages for many hours.

They complained they were suffering 10 to 20 hours long power outages in the scorching heat, which had also caused an acute shortage of water for a couple of days.

Jamat-i-Islami Hyderabad emir Hafiz Tahir Majeed said in a statement issued on Sunday that excessive loadshedding had caused severe water shortage had crippled life during sweltering heat.

Hesco and the Water and Sanitation Agency had completely failed to perform their basic functions of provision of power and water to consumers, he said.

SUKKUR: The officials of the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) have spurned the directives of prime minister and the federal minister for power to provide relief to consumers during Ram­azan and continued with their callous schedule of loadshedding even during Sehr, Iftar and Taraveeh timings.

In Sukkur, Thull, Jacobabad, Ghotki, Mirpur Mathelo, Kandhkot and other towns, people said they were experiencing worse loadshedding during Ramazan than they faced during rest of the year.

The loadshedding was officially being observed with spells of eight hours but its duration often increased at the pretext of faults in power supply lines and frequent tripping.

The residents of Sindhi Coope­rative Housing Society, Bashir Abad, Bihar Colony, Agha Rafiq Colony, Shah Khalid Colony and ADC Colony complained that contrary to clear directives from the prime minister and the federal minister to ensure power supply during Sehr and Iftar, Sepco officials callously switched off power at 3.00 am daily since the first of Ramazan.

The Sukkur Motor Works Association leader Shafiq Arain said in a statement that announced and unannounced loadshedding at the pretext of technical faults and self generated breakdowns had crippled life in the city. Sepco officials continued with 14 to 16 hours long loadshedding even during the holy month which was highly condemnable, he said.

He demanded the prime minister and the federal minister for power take notice of the situation and take stern action against the officials involved in imposing unuust and unjustifiable outages on people.

The Bandhani Social Organi­sation said in a statement that 12 to 16 hours long loadshedding was imposed in Sukkur and its adjoining areas.

It alleged that unjustifiably long loadshedding was being carried out to hide massive power theft which continued unabated in connivance with Sepco staff.

Meanwhile, activists of the Jeay Sindh Mahaz staged a demonstration in front of the Sukkur press club in protest against prolonged loadshedding which had created a crisis of drinking water in the city.

They criticised the federal government and said that prolonged loadshedding was being observed in Sindh under a cons­piracy aimed at weakening the economy of the province.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2015

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