PESHAWAR, May 22: The residents of Choti Lal Kurti, the Peshawar Cantonment’s slums that mostly comprises one-room quarters, have been facing frequent power failures and low-voltage supply for three months.

The Military Engineering Services (MES), which had been supplying electricity to the locality even before Wapda was created, has issued notices to the residents, warning that power supply would be disconnected to the area, as it houses civil population.

Consisting of around 100 houses, the slums, recently renamed as Al-Falah Bazaar, has been experiencing the problem of low voltage that has damaged many electronic appliances in every house, incurring heavy losses on the the residents.

Talking to Dawn on Tuesday, the affected people said they had contacted the staff of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) after receiving the disconnection notices from the MES, but the staff had refused to help them on the pretext that the authority had no electricity line in the area.

They said they had repeatedly requested the MES to give Wapda the responsibility of supplying power to the area, but in vain. Some women said that owing to the low voltage and frequent disruptions in power supply, they faced great hardships. “The children and elderly people are the most affected by this practice resorted to by the MES authorities.”

Despite the fact that they had been granted stay on power disconnection by a court of law, the department had not complied with the court order and had disconnected the electricity supply without giving any breathing space to the residents, some youths complained to Dawn.

The Choti Lal Kurti, located along The Mall near the State Life Building, has become a breeding place for mosquitoes and flies due to pollution. More often than not, the people spend sleepless nights. The power crisis has especially affected children, who find it difficult to study.