LARKANA: A complete shutter-down was observed in Naudero town — falling within the constituency of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhu­tto-Zardari — on Tuesday against electricity loadshedding continuing into the holy month of Ramazan.

A call for the protest was given by an organisation calling itself the ‘Citizens Action Committee (CAC)’, which also claims that the Sukkur Electric Power Com­pany (Sepco) was fleecing its consumers by forcing them to pay ‘detection’ bills to cover its losses.

Routine life in the town came to a standstill as all markets, bazaars, commer­cial lanes, shops and vending stalls remained closed in response to the protest call.

People from all walks of life assembled at the Naudero Municipal Comm­ittee building and then took out a rally raising slogans against Sepco.

They were led by CAC head Ghulam Haider Narejo, Mukhtiar Kumbhar, Javed Bhutto, Sahib Khan Shaikh and others.

After marching through the streets of Naudero, the protesters assembled under a tent pitched outside the local Sepco office and held a sit-in.

Rally held against Sepco, detection bills

Speaking to them, the CAC leaders condemned the power utility for continuing with its loadshedding regime in the area to the effect of 12 to 16 hours a day amid extremely hot weather condi­tions as the temperatures remained around 45-46 degrees Celsius.

They also slammed the power utility for sending to its consumers bills with “wrong” readings and based on detection of power theft apparently by other consu­mers. Also, instead of getting defective transfor­mers repa­i­r­ed on its own, Sepco had resorted to unfairly collec­ting money from its consu­mers to cover its losses, they said.

Under the pretext of defa­ult on the part of some con­su­mers, power supply to entire localities was being stopped without caring for those who were regularly paying their bills, they said.

The leaders recalled that the Supreme Court had restrained Sepco from sen­ding detection bills to consu­mers, and said that the power utility was in defiance of the court order by continuing with the practice.

They regretted that MNA Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and MNA Faryal Talpur as well as the officials concerned were approached to seek remedial measures but in vain.

They alleged that the elected representatives had alienated themselves from the town and areas of their constituencies.

They vowed to continue the sit-in until their grieva­nces were addressed.

During the course of the protest, Sepco executive eng­i­neer (rural) Mushtaq Burdi arrived at his Naudero office and spoke to local reporters regarding CAC’s complaints.

He said that he was ready to address the issues, adding that all defective meters would be replaced by those in working order and he would look into any other problem being faced by consumers.

However, he made it clear that the consumers recei­ving supplies from the feeders that showed heavy line losses on account of power theft would definitely not get electricity.

The protesters raising anti-Sepco slogans deman­ded immediate solution to all their problems relating to unbearable power cuts and bills.

BADIN: The entire Badin district faced power outages of long duration, low voltage and fluctuation on Tuesday, the first day of Ramazan.

Reports from Badin city, Tando Bago, Talhar, Matli, Shaheed Fazil Rahu (formerly Golarchi), Khoski and other towns as well as rural areas suggested that people faced immense hardship due to the absence of electricity during day and night hours, including Sehri and Iftar timings.

MIRPURKHAS: Up to 12 hours of loadshedding in several spells was resorted to by Hyderabad Electric Sup­ply Company (Hesco) on Tuesday.

Officials at the local offices of Hesco either did not respond to complainants or failed to address their issues.

In many areas, the total duration of power cuts appeared to be longer than it had been before Ramazan.

Residents of the district faced great hardship in maintaining their daily rou­tine and also faced a shortage of water due to the inter­mittent power failures and resultant disruption in the functioning of water supply installations.

Business, trade and commercial activities were also badly affected in the urban areas of the district while a serious disruption was caused in medical services, including surgeries, at hospitals.

A Hesco officer said that prolonged power cuts were caused by local faults which were being rectified.

SUKKUR: Sunni Tehreek leader Maulana Mehboob Ali Sahito, in a statement issued here on Tuesday, held Sepco responsible for an acute shortage of water in many areas of Sukkur, inclu­ding the thickly populated locality of New Pind.

He said that an undeclared loadshedding had seriously disrupted pumping at the water utility’s installation causing a shortage in the areas and hardship to faithful in the holy month of Ramazan.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2019