Residents block Adiala Road in protest against zero gas pressure

Rawalpindi

A large number of residents of Adiala Road, Defense Road, Munawar Colony and Jarahi on Wednesday staged protest demonstration against zero gas pressure in their localities. The angry protesters burnt tyres and raised slogans against Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and blocked Adiala Road for a long time causing a massive traffic jam in the area.

The angry protesters have threatened to stage protest demonstration in front of Parliament House if SNGPL did not provide them gas.

The residents of affected localities of Adiala Road, Defense Road, Mubarak Lane, Munawar Colony, Hill View Lane, Saleha Street, Usama Street, Dhoke Juma, Sher Zaman Colony, Al-Mumtaz Colony, Caltex Road, Jarahi, Kalyal and several other localities have been deprived of natural gas for domestic use for a month. Helpless people were seen in search of ‘roti’ and cooked food but all was in vain as all ‘tandoors’ were also closed due to absence of natural gas on Wednesday till the filing of this report. Some ‘tandoors’ were using firewood, but there were long queues of customers at such outlets. The majority of hotels also failed to provide food to people due to absence of gas in affected areas.

The protesters said that SNGPL had promised to provide them gas in this winter season but all their promises proved nothing. The season is not so cool than last year but SNGPL as per routine stopped supplying natural gas in these areas for a month. The SNGPL is sending bills as per routine but not providing us gas, they denounced.

“There is no gas supply even to make tea,” said a protester, Shafiq Ahmed, a resident of Adiala Road. He said life has become miserable for the residents since the onset of winter. He said that PML-N government had promised to provide basic needs of public but all promises proved faked. “It seems that government has pushed us in stone-age when people used wood and other things for fire,” he denounced.

Beenish Nawab, a housewife, said that there was zero gas pressure since morning. “How could I prepare breakfast and lunch for my family. In the state of helplessness I went to the market to buy bread and some cups of tea for my children in the morning.” she said. Why government is not taking action against SNGPL for not providing us natural gas, she asked.