MANSEHRA, July 9: Unscheduled load-shedding of four to six hours a day for the past few weeks, has been causing inconvenience to the people of Mansehra area.

In some rural areas, the duration ranged between eight and 10 hours everyday. Despite protests and strikes observed by the people in Garhi Habibullah and other areas, Pesco authorities pay no heed to the plight of the people.

In some localities, power has remained suspended from 7am to 7pm for the last three days. The traders, heads of educational institutions and people belonging to all sections of society have complained about the prolonged power suspension. They have especially criticized the apathy of Pesco authorities.

Talking to Dawn, some people of the area said they had planned to organize protest demonstrations throughout the district from July 15 against the Pesco authorities. When this correspondent contacted the Pesco Xen Syed Mudassar Shah on Friday, he denied any load-shedding in the area the district.

When his attention was drawn towards the fact that power was still suspended as he (the official) talking to this reporter, Mr Mudassar said that the power supply had been suspended in some areas of Kashmir road as the transformer near the government degree college for girls was under repairs.

When he was told that no repair work was under way near the college, the Xen failed to come up with a satisfactory response. He denied that load-shedding was being observed for covering line losses.

He, however, said that the power transformer in the Mansehra grid station and 11 KV feeders were overloaded and it had caused tripping which had resulted in power disruption.