Dwellers of twin cities brave nastiest summer, loadshedding together

Rawalpindi

The unfortunate consumers of Soan Sub Division, Sihala, Devi Data, Rawat, Mughal, Kallar, Chak Beli Khan, Gora Syedan and several other rural areas around Rawalpindi and Islamabad are facing record load shedding of over 15-hours which has made their life miserable in this scorching weather. The consumers of Devi Data and Mughal took to the streets and strongly protested against Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco), as they had passed Sunday night in total darkness and electricity had not staged a comeback till the filing of this report on Monday.

The residents of Rawalpindi are facing long hours of unscheduled load shedding, which has made their life miserable. The concerned authorities seem helpless to cope with the situation.  Iesco official spokesman Raja Asim Nazir conceded the heavy load shedding, but told 'The News' that situation would improve by April 25. He said that we need 1,496 MW electricity but we are getting only 1,002 MW here in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. "We are facing shortfall of 494MW electricity therefore the consumers of tail end areas have to face long hours of load shedding. Secondly, we are observing load shedding as per schedule of 4 to 6 hours but Regional Control Centre (RCC) is observing forced load shedding where we are helpless, he claimed. He assured that situation will get better after April 25. 

The residents of Gorakhpur, Rawat, Humak, Raqqa, Niazian, Devi Datta, Dhok Awan, Pind Jatla, Kotla, Mandra and several other localities are facing 2 hours of load shedding after every one hour. They hve threatened to protest in front of Parliament House if Iesco fails to provide them electricity. The angry residents proceeded to the Iesco offices in their areas but all staff members ran away before their arrival.

Reliable sources said that in fact the government has once again failed to pay money to independent power producers (IPPs), therefore, people have to endure long hours of load shedding. Secondly, deficiency of natural gas is another reason of long hours of loadshedding, the sources said. 

The residents of affected localities also facing worst shortage of water as they could not use electric motors because of lack of electricity. Talking to 'The News,' enraged people said that the government should accept its failure in providing uninterrupted power supply in winter and summer season. “What would happen in peak summer season,” they asked.

"We pay electricity bills regularly but government is not providing us light when we needed it in summer season. How can we survive in this situation," Sajid Mehmood a resident of Devi Datta told 'The News' on Monday adding “We voted PML-N to power to solve genuine issues but situation has not changed at all, he denounced.”

Muhammad Noman a resident of Rawat said that they were facing 2 hours load shedding after every 25 minutes or 1-hour break. "I wonder what would happen in the peak summer season," he said. He said that it seemed there was no planning to provide uninterrupted power supply. He added that we faced zero gas pressure in winter but long hours of load shedding even at the start of summer has added fuel to fire. "We cannot continue our business activities when there is neither gas nor electricity," he said testily.