CHITRAL: More than 20,000 power consumers in upper Chitral have grown weary of Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) for its unwarranted loadshedding spanning over 16 hours daily in the holy month of Ramazan despite the availability of electricity.

The households in the 10 union councils of upper Chitral and Koh union council of lower Chitral were being provided electricity from Reshun hydropower station of Pedo (4.2MW generation capacity) till July 2015 when it was swept away by flash flood and the government failed to start work on its rehabilitation.

With the completion of Golen Gol hydropower station of Wapda and its commissioning in February this year, 36MW of electricity was available in surplus from which the Upper Chitral and Koh union council were getting power.

The consumers in upper Chitral complained that despite the incessant supply of electricity from the grid station to the feeder in Reshun, they had to face loadshedding of 16 hours daily which was gratuitous and unjustified on the part of the power company.

Abdullah Jan, a leader of Tahreek-i-Huqooq Upper Chitral, said that the obnoxious practice of loadshedding for an extended period was not tolerable for the people of the area, who had been waiting for three years since 2015 when they lost the Reshun power house to flash flood.

He lamented that the incapable government of PTI in the province had ignored the people of upper Chitral placing them at the mercy of Pedo officials. They expected a fair treatment by the interim setup of the province, he added.

Mr Jan said there was no excuse with the Pedo officials for failing to supply electricity to the area round the clock as the old transmission lines and apparatus were intact.

He urged the caretaker chief minister to take cognizance of the situation and bring to book the resident engineer of Pedo at Reshun for the unwarranted power loadshedding.

He said if the situation persisted, the people of upper Chitral will have no option but to resort to widespread protest, which could include the blocking of Chitral-Booni road on the occasion of Shandur festival.

The resident engineer’s mobile phone was found off while his subordinate staff at Reshun including generator operator Nadir Khan said that the RE had already left for Peshawar for Eidul Fitr vacations.

Regarding the loadshedding in the area, he said the transformer available with Pedo at Reshun connecting the grid station was of lower capacity which could not withstand the load beyond 3.5MW and it was due to this reason that load management was being conducted.

However, Fazle Mabood, an electrical engineer working with a private organisation, rebutted the claim of the Pedo official and said the power load did not exceed 3.5MW even in the peak hours in the area and even if it happened so, there was no justification of power outage extending to 16 hours.

He said Pedo lacked sufficient strength of field staff to look after both the high tension and low tension transmission lines and transformers in the villages of upper Chitral and they had no option but to resort to loadshedding.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2018