SWABI: About 500 cases of major faults or burning of electricity transformers were recorded in the district during summer every year, sources in the Peshawar Electric Supply Company’s district office told this correspondent here on Tuesday.

They said that the company often ran out of transformers in summer and sometime it found it hard to handle the pressure from consumers in different circles. Shah Wali Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s former district information secretary who knows about the issue, said that in every summer over eight electricity transformers of different categories burnt in each union council, mainly because of overload. There are a total of 56 union councils in the district.

Sources said that the consumers were lucky this summer as the general elections were held and the candidates would quickly arrange for replacement of faulty transformers. They claimed that the PTI leaders spent Rs4.5 million on repair of transformers and the district government also provided separate funds for the purpose. They said that besides Pesco reclamation centre in Nowshera there were two private outlets for repair of transformers.

When contacted, an official said on condition of anonymity that the company officials had not been able to procure the required number of transformers.

“We remain under pressure in June, July and August when the people stage protests, block roads and demand immediately replacement of faulty transformers,” he said.

The officials lamented unjust pressure tactics applied by politicians and demanded that they should resolve the issue once and for all by increasing the number of new transformers and making the repair process quicker. Sources said that in Khararai area of Topi tehsil the faulty transformer had not been replaced though the area was without power for the last few days.

REJECTED: Awami National Party and Qaumi Watan Party leaders in separate gatherings on Tuesday rejected the 143 per cent hike in gas tariff, saying it would lead to increase in prices of various commodities. QWP district chairman Masood Jabar and ANP district general secretary Mohammad Islam said that the slogans of ‘change’ and ‘Naya Pakistan’ had proved hollow as there was no respite for the people from increasing taxes and prices.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2018