KOHAT, Oct 24: Frequent power breakdowns have made life miserable in various parts of the district in the past one month.

Electricity supply is daily suspended to City-1 and 2 and other small towns of the district from 8am to 2pm. The six-hour power suspension creates great hardships for the area people.

A women hospital has also been hit hard, as all major operations have to be cancelled.

Even before this acute power crisis, electricity was being supplied to these areas for 15 days a month on alternate days.

Sometimes, the people have to wait the whole day for the restoration of the power supply, as Pesco officials do not announce any schedule for suspending electricity.

Pesco’s indifferent and irresponsible attitude has affected business activities and office works, incurring losses of million of rupees.

Not only that, the consumers are also reportedly being sent inflated bills, as meter readers do not bother to read meters on monthly basis.

Some consumers told this correspondent on Wednesday that they had been without electricity for the past 15 days, but the bills they had received were highly inflated.

The residents of KDA complained that they had paid millions of rupees as developmental charge to book houses in the posh locality, where Wapda had installed faulty transformers, resulting in regular breakdowns.

Fluctuation of voltage was another problem the residents said they had been facing due to the faulty and low-powered transformers.

Local Wapda officials, when contacted, said 40 to 45 per cent of its installations in Kohat were 30 years old and needed immediate replacement in order to overcome the loading problem and to ensure regular electricity supply to the area.

They regretted that Wapda was aware of the problems being faced by the people, but it could not undertake upgradation of the system due to shortage of funds.