People up in arms against load shedding; shortfall reaches 7000MW

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People have risen up in arms against unscheduled and excessive duration of loadshedding as the electricity shortfall crossed 7000 MW on Wednesday.
There were protests in Sialkot, Gujranwala, Wazirabad, Jhelum, Chakwal, Bhalwal and other cities of Punjab on Wednesday as people have been forced to bear the long hours of loadshedding. Citizens said that more than 18 hours of load shedding was being enforced in cities and between 20 to 22 hours in rural areas thus making their lives miserable.
The protestors said that electricity is supplied for a few minutes after two to three hours of breakdown and then again the supply is cut. As a result not only they are forced to suffer in rising temperature but water supply has been adversely affected for the consumers. Businessmen said they too are suffering extensively because of non supply of electricity while domestic consumers have spoken of damage to their appliances.
Protestors in cities burnt tyres, raised slogans against PEPCO and government over the worsening supply situation and pointed that the promises made by the PPP government to overcome the crisis have not been fulfilled. They said in fact the situation has gone from bad to worse and with circular debt reaching Rs 232 billion and threat by the IPPs to stop generation, it is feared that business, industrial and other activities would come to a standstill.
They questioned where the revenue generated from power consumption was going as the government is increasing the tariff every month. They said the circular debt was on the increase because of corruption in PEPCO and theft of electricity in Sindh, Balochistan and FATA. They said people in Punjab were paying their bills regularly and there is minimum theft of electricity but they were being victimized by the PPP led government. They warned that if the government failed to over come the electricity crisis, they would be forced to stop payment of bills and would march to Islamabad.
PEPCO officials said that if the circular debt was clear, the situation could improve.
On the other hand the water level at Tarbela has reached the dead level and there is no possibility of any increase in hydel power generation.

9 COMMENTS

  1. It looks like the load shedding will prove to be disastrous for PPP in the forthcoming elections. No one understands the wisdom of re assigning important portfolio to much maligned former minister of power Raja Pervez Ashraf. Does the PPP, not have any other person who is competent enough to improve the declining power production.

    • The right question:

      Does PPP not have any educated honest person?

      Answer: No, never had, never will. Its against Zulfiqar's ideology.

  2. I hv some friends in Bangladesh and India. My Bangladeshi friends tell me in most parts of Bangladesh, light comes for 4 hours in a day. In India, a friend from Gujrat state says his area gets light after 36 hours. Last year in SouthIndia software industry suffered 1000 billion loss due to load shedding. These countries r seting up RPP with Bangladesh having 40 rental power plants on cards. Noone in those countries came on roads. We are senseless nation. First we opposed rental power, now we r protesting. In the end next PMLN or PTI govt will also set up RPP.

    • Your ignorance is astounding. You go ahead and compare to places that have more problems, had more problems. You fail to realise that this govt. is run by incompetent (to put it lightly) idiots who who deserve to be roaming the streets with the stray dogs.

      Please get educated or die!

      • Don't be so hard on TazeemJan. Poor guy took a beating the other day on another comment 🙂

  3. Brother , I am from bangladesh,Main senario in our country is that, Our leader Hasina Wazed set up RPP, It based on oil,as a result price of oil increase, Moreover,electric bill also increased, But many RPP plant do not in progress,Companies take loan from bank to set up the power plant, but they making delay,Govt give license without any money govt. also give money& govt. make immunity act for this to get relief from future corruption problem,But no current in our country,So think we are in a cycale,where no peace in our country,But we r vary peacefull nation,don't make any protest,if we go to protest ,Ruling party agent & police will beat us,U r in goood state where rulling party donot support gunda raj over to size the peolpe

  4. I am completely at loss to figure out the raison d' etre for our government . People lack basic facilities without which socities cannot call themselves civilized.
    Our leaders are fearless in pursuing their personal interests and in that they niether fear God nor man.

  5. The issue isn't RPP. The issue is the corruption in obtaining the RPPs. If these RPP were producing electricity, the people would overlook the corruption. However, this govt. is more interested in taking care of gillani's criminal friends than doing something for the people. Time for a General to step in 🙂

  6. In the wake of such blatant ignorance of the nation’s interests and such profound preoccupation with self-indulgent hedonistic lifestyle by tge politicians,I am compelled to think:
    Is military rule better than ‘democracy’?
    So far,it has only proved that without a “danda” possessed by the likes of army,no department is able to function satisfactorily
    Second,i think that democracy has just been limited to a source of power by the various political parties;instead of arguing rampantly about the benefits of democracy,hge politicians ought to PROVE to the nation that it indeed is better than military rule.Without this, statements on democracy are just tools these blockhead,myopic politicians use to befool the common man.

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