SADIQABAD/RAHIM YAR KHAN
The Mepco authorities are carrying out unscheduled loadshedding in the urban as well as rural areas here. The duration of loadshedding has reached to 18 hours a day while in parts of Sadiqabad, people are suffering prolonged outage for days.
In Ahmadpur Lamma Subdivision, electrical appliances like moteors and turbines worth millions of rupees went out of order due to low voltage in some areas and continuous outage of electricity in the other areas of Sadiqabad was also witnessed. The affected farmers feared of destruction of their standing crops. They demanded immediate restoration of power supply and proper voltage else, they threatened to hold protest against Mepco. The farmers included M Sadiq, Jamil, Iqbal, Zafar, Ehsanul Haq, Saleem, Khuda Bakhsh, Muhammad Talib, Ahmad Din, Kamal, Feroz and Ishaq. They said that Mepco amid prolonged loadshedding and low voltage was looting the consumers by issuing them inflated bills. They demanded immediate redressal of their grievances. Another report Rahim Yar Khan adds: The supply of electricity at Sehar and Iftar is also being suspended. In the areas of Abbasia Town, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Satellite Town, New Officers Colony and Town Hall, electricity is provided for only 2-5 minutes in every hour creating hardships for people.
The business circles, traders and citizen criticised the government and demanded proper supply of electricity at least during Saher, Iftar and Taraveeh prayers. Mian Muhammad Saleem, a resident of Trust Colony, said that due to low-voltage supply of electric, his various home appliances had gone out of order. Naeem Bashir, a resident of Gulshan-e-Iqbal complained against the power fluctuations in his area. When contacted, XEN Zafar Abbasi refused to comment on the situation via phone.