KARACHI - Inhabitants of various areas of the metropolis staged protest against prolonged power outages on Saturday.
A number of residents of Nusrat Bhutto Colony, North Nazimabad came out of their houses and staged protest at Qalandria Chowk against power suspension of 40 hours in their area.
They pelted with stones on the passing vehicles and burnt tires. As result, massive traffic jam was witnessed in the surrounding areas.
Protestors alleged that the KESC has repeatedly gave them assurances that the power supply of the area would be resumed as soon as possible but it did not. They had to suffer loadshedding for more than 40 hours during Eid holidays. Similarly, scores of people staged protest at Disco Mor, North Karachi against non-serious behavior of the KESC. They said they were powerless for 30 hours and spent Eid in the same situation. The situation occurred due to some technical fault in the area’s transformer.
Ahmed Ansari, a resident of the area, said he lodged complaints on the KESC’s helpline 118 for power suspension in the area at least eight times but the operational staff was reluctant to take any action on the complaints. The staffers on duty had always answered that the operational staff was busy resolving the faults of other complainants but in real they were enjoying Eid at their homes and all the vehicles of KESC were parked outside the complain centres without the staffers.
Another protest was witnessed at Surjani Town, KDA Square. The protestors said they were facing power suspension for last the three days due to failure of transformer. The KESC officials did not come to resolve their grievance.
It is pertinent to mention here that various parts of the city had constantly faced loadshedding during the three days of Eid. The duration of loadshedding was from one to three hours.
Meanwhile,Sindh Local Government Minister Owais Muzaffar Tappi has directed immediate action against the encroachments in the surrounding of flyovers, including removal of various asymmetrical signboards from the city.
He further directed that Water Board managing director to make all the arrangements for continuous water supply across the city and enhance the operation against illegal hydrants.
Talking to media men during his visits to various parts of the city here on Saturday, he lauded the efforts of KMC officers for making better arrangements for lifting and disposing of offal of sacrificial animals.
He announced an additional amount of Rs2,000 in the honoree of grade one to grade 5 municipal workers. “Karachi is the financial hub of the country and it is our responsibility to make all efforts to keep the city clean,” he said.
Taking notice of the encroachment in the surroundings of various flyovers, he directed the officials to take action against the encroachments and lift up the garbage lying under the flyovers.
Tappi said next year, with the help of a private firm, government is looking forward to build slaughterhouses to facilitate the Karachiites.
EBAD MEETS ZARDARI
Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan called on former president Asif Ali Zardari at Bilawal House here on Saturday.
During the meeting, various issues came under discussion including the political situation of the country and the relation of PPP and MQM. The law and order in the province especially the situation of Karachi was also discussed.
Sources added Zardari has conveyed his message to the leadership of MQM and invited them again to join the provincial government. Sources closed to the MQM have ruled out the possibility of coalition with PPP.
They said the PPP had invited MQM several times but it always declined to join the government.
Ebad has conveyed to him the reservations of MQM regarding the targeted operation continued in the city against the criminals.