Power outages and protests continued in the city on the fourth day as angry mob torched LESCO regional office in Icchra area on Tuesday. Despite tall claims of minister for power, Pakistan Electric Power Company and Lahore Electricity Supply Company, the situation has not improved and outages remained high.
The LESCO suffered thousands of rupees loss due to torching of its property by the protestors. The protestors also blocked the main road at Shahdara area, choking the transport from coming and leaving Lahore.
The consumers had to face 12 to 18 hours of load shedding and there was no relief in unscheduled and forced power cuts. The outages started in the morning and power was closed continuously for more than four hours in almost every part of the city. It triggered the masses to come on the road and protest against the outages.
Though every part of the city echoed with protests but major demonstration was witnessed in Icchra area, where angry protestors torched LESCO office. The traders of Icchra and Ferozepur Road said they were carrying out peaceful protest but suddenly things get out of control when people surrounded LESCO office and pelted it with stones. The officials present in the office escaped from the scene to save their lives. The protestors entered the LESCO office, smashed the windowpanes and set documents and furniture on fire. They also robbed the office of its wires and appliances. The police did not stop the protesters from carrying out demonstration.
LESCO sources said the company had lost at least Rs 1 million. “The damage of property and equipment is huge and could be more than Rs 1 million,” said an official of the company, adding that LESCO was only a distribution company and had nothing to do with load shedding but the masses did not understand this thing.
“Our PM is a liar,” said a protester, adding that the situation had not improved. In another protest at Shahdara area, the protesters blocked the main road. The traffic coming and leaving the city was choked and commuters had to wait for hours. In another protest at Lakshami Chowk, the protesters burnt tyres and chanted slogans against the government. The protestors said the government had crippled their lives. However, PEPCO officials claimed that the load shedding had reduced due to decrease in shortfall. They said the company was facing 4,500MW shortfall, whereas, the company was in deficit of 5,500MW on Sunday. The reality was different from the claim, though. Meanwhile the hydel generation remained 2,400MW, thermal production stood at 1,800MW while the IPPs provided 5,400MW.
