SUKKUR: The residents of Pano Aqil on Sunday blocked the National Highway to protest the prolonged load-shedding in the tehsil.
According to protesters, they have been facing 18 to 20 hours of load-shedding but the officers of Sukkur’s power department, Sukkur Electric Power Company (SEPCO), were not lending an ear to their complaints.
The protestors further alleged that instead of resolving the issue, the SEPCO officials were busy asking for a bribe to fix a dysfunctional for the last few days.
Meanwhile, SEPCO officials stated that duration of load-shedding in Pano Aqil tehsil of Sukkur district was right hours. They added only those areas were facing prolonged outages where line losses were greater.
During the protest, the residents not only demonstrated on the National Highway but also blocked it for the traffic by placing uprooted trees on both sides of the road near Sangi. The protest resulted in vehicles waiting in long queues on the road.
Besides, Sukkur, the prolonged load-shedding has continued to plague Karachi as well, which authorities said have been caused by faults in Port Bin Qasim power plant, responsible to supply the electricity to the city.
The metropolitan city is facing the shortfall of 600MW-700MW due to the breakdown of the power plant, leading to unannounced load-shedding in the areas that were exempted from power outages.