TIMERGARA: Consumers of dozens of villages from Tormang and Warsak feeders, connected with Taimer grid station, heaved a sigh of relief when their electricity supply was restored Wednesday evening after 12 days of blackout.
Thousands of the consumers were without electricity for the last 12 days and have been facing water shortage amid the hot weather as Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) failed to solve their problem for several days. The 66kv heavy transformer at the Taimer grid station, Lower Dir, went out of order about two weeks ago. The local authorities of Pesco first claimed the fault in the transformer would be removed within 24 hours, and later they announced to bring a transformer from Wari Grid Station in Upper Dir. However, even after shifting the one from Wari, the Pesco staff failed to restore power supply to the consumers and dozens of villages in the district remain without electricity till Wednesday evening.
Although the elected representatives from the district failed to play any role in ending the misery of the electorates, the Pesco authorities also failed to provide a timely solution to the problem of consumers who are paying utility bills timely. Interestingly, power supply was restored within hours after the angry consumers from Koto, Hajiabad, Chamanabad, Manogi and several other villages of Malakand Darra staged a protest outside the deputy commissioner’s office at Balambat and warned of turning violent if the power supply was not restored.
For the last two weeks, the local authorities of Pesco used to dodge the consumers by saying that power supply would be restored within a day and they kept extending this one-day deadline for more than 10 days, prompting the people to come onto roads after 12 days. The protest resulted in the restoration of power supply within a few hours and that too after the interference and assurance of the district administration.
