SWABI: Acquiring gas connection is an uphill task for the consumers who are made to use all means, legal or illegal, to get one, but to no avail.

Consumers told Dawn on Friday that they had applied for the gas connections years back but had yet to get one for unknown reasons. Whenever we visited the regional office of the SNGPL the staff concerned told us that we should wait for our turn and not to visit the offices time and time again, the consumers lamented.

Sahibzada of Palodand village said that even the letters of the politicians and incumbent parliamentarians could not have any effect on the SNGPL staff.

Rajwali Khan of Maneri Bala said that under the country’s constitution every Pakistani had the right to have access to basic facilities of life like gas, electricity, water, but it seemed that such provisions were not for the people of Swabi. “Influential people face no difficulty in getting all the required facilities of life,” he lamented.

The gas connection seekers said that the normal fee for a gas connection was Rs3,000, but the incumbent PML-N-led federal government had fixed Rs25,000 for the purpose. This decision has benefited the affluent class to pay money and get early connections, but the poor people have been suffering, they regretted.

Meanwhile, ANP leaders, while speaking at a meeting on Friday blasted the coalition partner, Awami Jamhoori Ittehad (AJIP), for failing to provide the people with gas facility.

Mr Rehmanullah, ANP district president, said that AJIP had good relations with the ruling PML-N in the centre, but it had failed to provide people with gas facility even in the areas of its influence.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2015

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