TAXILA, Sept 13: After a brief respite from loadshedding because of the rains, the city is again being subjected to 12 to 14-hour loadshedding.
The power outages after every alternative hour becomes irksome for consumers of rural areas in Taxila, as well as its sister cities of Wah Cantt and Hassanabdal because of the humid weather conditions.
The consumers connected to rural areas feeder complained that the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) and the Ministry of Water and Power’s Energy Management Cell (EMC) were subjecting the city to 12 to 14-hour-long blackouts, which had brought the daily activities of citizens to a halt.
Attique Kashmiri, President stone cutters association Taxila, while talking to this reporter said the acute electricity and gas shortage had not only crippled trade and industry but had also resulted in widespread unemployment and poverty.
He said that Punjab contributes nearly two-thirds to the country’s GDP, pays for 80 per cent of electricity bills and gets only 60 per cent of electricity units “yet it is being made the worst victim of injustice”.
“We cannot work in the day and are unable to sleep at night because of constant power outages. Electricity problem is the topmost problem of the city, province and the whole country but the federal as well as the provincial government and the Ministry concerned have failed to give due importance to this menace,” said Ameen Khan, a worker who suffered a monthly loss of Rs20,000 due to the power crisis.
Another citizen, Malik Tahir Suleman has said that the government and opposition both were busy in politics and campaigns for upcoming elections and were completely ignoring real issues like power crisis.
Usman Aziz, a resident of Dhabian has said that loadshedding was posing more problems for children than elderly people. He said that despite paying a huge sum in the form of electricity bills, citizens were not being given any relief.
Talking to this reporter, Iesco spokesman has confirmed that a further eight-hour load shedding had to be carried out because of the increase in power shortfall.
He added that earlier, there were rains and the demand of power was less, now the demand has suddenly jumped to 17,000MW, causing an increase in the shortfall and disrupting the schedule of load management,” he said. However, inside sources told this reporter that main reason for the increase in electricity shortfall is non-payment of dues to oil companies.
According to sources, power plants are being supplied 24,000 tones of furnace oil, instead of 39,000 tones.