SWABI: Three congested areas of the district are without electricity as power transformers there have developed faults, creating numerous difficulties for the people, including water shortage.

The residents said that the 100kv transformer in Swabi Khas union council had stopped working, but the officials of Peshawar Electric Supply Company failed to replace or repair it despite repeated appeals.

Also, the 100kv transformer of Mohallah Gulbahar, Swabi, had burnt due to overload. The consumers said that this was the eighth time in the current hot and humid weather that the area transformer developed a fault and each time they collected donations for its repair.

“Once we got the transformer repaired, but there was no Pesco staff to install it,” said Zahid Khan. The consumers said that a 200kv transformer had been sanctioned for the area, but the Pesco officials had adopted delaying tactics to install it.

People say Pesco not responding to complaints

The 100kv transformer of Landay Cham, Zarobi, was also lying out of order and the people had approached the leaders of the ruling party for its repair or replacement, but did not get a positive response so far.

When contacted, a Pesco official said that they were short of transformers and the repair would take time.

EIGHT INJURED IN ROAD CRASH: Eight members of a wedding party were injured in rear-end collision involving six vehicles near Swabi interchange on Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway here on Friday.

According to police, the wedding party was going to Rawalpindi from Mardan and the incident occurred due to speeding during rain.

They said that the children and women were crying for help. They said that traffic on the motorway was also stopped for some time while the marriage party people helped in retrieving the injured, including four women, from the vehicles.

The injured were taken to Bacha Khan Hospital Complex, Shahmansoor, where four of them are stated to be in critical condition.

Also in the day, five workers were injured in a unit of Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate. Sources said that the workers fell from a building after a rope they were holding broke. The injured were taken to the tehsil headquarters hospital.

RAIN DAMAGES CROPS: Torrential rain damaged crops and in some areas the floodwater entered houses on Friday.

The floodwater also caused traffic suspension on the main roads. The transporters and commuters were forced to wait for hours for receding of the floodwater due to overflowing Topi Badri Nullah.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2019