Hundreds of Rawalpindi residents staged a demonstration against outages and low gas pressure here at IJ Principal Road on Friday. They burnt tyres, raised slogans against the authorities concerned and blocked the road for four hours, causing a massive traffic jam that continued till evening.
The angry residents, a majority of them from New Katarian, Saidpur Road, Pidora, Shamsabad, and Khayaban-e-Sir Sayyed, Dhoke Ratta and Ratta Amral, blocked the IJ Principal Road that choked the traffic movement for over 4 hours. The motorists of the twin cities, traveling on the road, faced problem because of the demonstration.
“There is not enough gas supply even to make some tea after 6:30 am,” said Talha Shakil, a resident of Khayaban-e-Sir Sayyed. He said life has become miserable for the residents since the onset of winter.
The protesters, around 250 in number, were holding sticks and they scuffled with the police officials who tired to disperse them.
The protest at IJ Principal Road against the low gas pressure is not an exception and it is becoming a routine matter here in the garrison city. The enraged protesters said the government was providing the gas only to posh areas like cantonment but paying no heed to the problems being faced by the lower-middle class people.
They warned that they would stage a big demonstration outside the Sui Northen Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) offices if the latter failed to improve the situation immediately.
The protesters also alleged that the SNGPL officials have given a number of connections to CNG stations and big plazas in the surrounding areas of Ratta Amral and Dhoke Ratta and hence choking the supply to the residents there.
They said the gas pressure in Ratta areas was too low to cook food and that more than 100,000 people residing there were using firewood and coal. They said the government was only increasing the gas tariffs every now and then without bothering to ensure its uninterrupted supply.
