LAHORE, Sept 11: Power trippings made people’s life miserable all over the city on Thursday.

The areas that were lashed by a downpour and strong winds on Wednesday were the worst-affected, including parts of the Defence Housing Authority.

“It has become a norm with the Lahore Electricity Supply Company (Lesco) to cut the power supply for hours in the name of maintenance and development, but no improvement is witnessed and there is no drop in the frequency of power trippings in the following days,” said a resident of a locality on the Walton Road.

Obtaining information about the reason and duration of a power tripping is an uphill task, says Ashraf of Sanda. Once power is off, the only source of information about its reason and duration is the Lesco Helpline. “A call at the centre evokes a polite but confusing response,” he said. Even in cases where the supply of power has already been cut for 30 or 40 minutes, the operator says he is yet to receive a request for a formal shutdown. Eventually, after an hour or so without power, a complainant is told by the operator that request for a 30-minute shutdown has been received from the sub-division concerned. After 30 minutes, the caller would most probably be told to contact the sub-division concerned, where the telephone attendant would say that a maintenance team was still in the field. Only on its return, he would able to tell the exact time of power restoration. Otherwise, the caller is told to call the SDO or XEN concerned on their mobile phones, who say that the team is still working and is out of contact because it does not have a mobile phone. The calls would add Rs50 to one’s telephone bills without leading him to a conclusion, he said.

“The ban on kite-flying hardly leaves any excuse for frequent power failures,” remarked another irritated consumer from Gulberg. The posh areas have always had only a few kite enthusiasts, but Lesco used to hide behind the excuse. Now, even after removal of the problem, there is no letup in power trippings. This shows that an aging system, poor maintenance and bad management are the real causes. It is time for Wapda to put its house in order and provide some relief to hapless consumers, he stressed.