KHAR: The supply of electricity to most of the areas in Bajaur Agency remained suspended for the third consecutive day on Saturday owing to technical fault in the transmission lines.

The residents of different areas told this scribe that supply of electricity remained suspended since Thursday morning after it started to rain. They said that the supply was not restored during the last three days.

They said that authorities had promised that supply of electricity would be restored to the areas by Saturday morning, but they failed to do so.

“We don’t know the cause of the long suspension of electricity in the region but officials had told us on Friday that electricity would be restored till Saturday morning,” said Sirajuddin Khan, a resident of Barkholozo area of Mamond tehsil.

The residents said that almost all areas of the agency except the political compound in Khar had been without electricity for the last three days. They claimed that for the first time since November 2017, the region witnessed such a long suspension of electricity.

Some of the people criticised the local officials of Tesco for not informing them about the reasons of suspension of electricity.

They said they had been calling to the office of Tesco in Khar and local grid station but the officials were not informing them about the causes and exact time of restoration of power supply.

The residents of the areas said that suspension of power supply caused great hardships to them. They said that they were faced with acute shortage of drinking water.

The tribesmen asked the local administration and Tesco to realise their problems and take interest in restoration of power supply to their areas.

An official of Tesco, when contacted, said that supply of electricity was suspended owing fault in several transmission lines.

He said that several technical teams were sent to the affected areas to remove the faults and restore supply of electricity.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2018