KARACHI, June 27: Hot and humid weather and power failures have plagued the lives of Karachiites.
People calling from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Orangi Town, Shah Faisal Colony, Landhi, Federal B Area, Saddar and SITE told Dawn that their localities had experienced power breakdowns on Thursday.
Calling the Dawn office at around 9pm on Thursday, Askari Hussain, a resident of New Karachi, said his locality had been without electricity since noon. On Wednesday, he informed Dawn that his locality had received electricity after a lapse of 13 and a half hours.
A resident of Federal B Area, Block 19, said he had to endure a power cut from 2pm to 5.30pm. Another resident of Federal B Area, Block 10, said his locality had been without power the previous day for several hours.
Calling from Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Block 17, a resident said that his locality had suffered very bad power breakdowns over the past few days. “Power failures continue almost all night and there is little respite from power cuts in daytime.”
A resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 5, said that his locality had also been facing intermittent power breakdowns since Tuesday. “I live in apartments where a number of people pilfer power. The KESC does not even try to detect such power theft in my locality. It is no wonder then that the power utility faces a shortage of power but it does nothing to cut down on power pilferage.
The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation did not even spare Thomas & Thomas which has been without electricity for the past three days.
SITE: The Council of Karachi Industrial Association has opposed a petition submitted by the KESC for a rise in tariff, adds APP.
A spokesman for the Council said the SITE Association of Industry, which was the parent body of CKIA, had moved an application to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority for intervention and had given grounds for outright rejection of the KESC application for tariff increase.
He suggested that the KESC should concentrate on recovery of uncollected dues from the government and semi-government organisations and chronic defaulters instead of burdening the innocent and bona fide consumers.
He said that the losses were the result of the KESC’s inefficiency. He said that justice demanded that a study be conducted to ascertain the losses that were sustained by the industry due to interrupted supply of power breakdowns and load shedding.
Meanwhile, a team of the KESC, with the help of an army monitoring team, conducted a big operation in Bakra Piri, Ghazi Town Phase-I and removed about 80 illegal kundas. About 600-metre-long wire as well as 200-metre-long telephone wire was also recovered.