Lahore News

Outages, muggy weather test people’s patience Monday, July 21, 2008 By Our Correspondent LAHORE POOR electricity distribution has added to the miseries of the people in humid weather when the Wapda already said that it was unable to meet the power shortage due to limited generation capacity against the demand. People get very miserable especially at midnight when unscheduled loadshedding takes place. People get further aggravated when no official of the Regional Control Centre (RCC) Islamabad, Power Distribution Centre (PDC) Lahore and Lesco are available to address their miseries. The mobile phone numbers of respective XENs, SDOs and grid stations are printed on electricity bills so that complaints of consumers are addressed BUT whenever unexpected power failure occurs in the system, the cell phones of the officials are switched off or not attended. Similarly, the telephones of the grid stations are also found engaged. This situation is not limited to the grid stations, XENs and SDOs level officials of the Lesco. The dedicated helpline number printed on every power bill is not attended too. Likewise, senior officials of Lesco including its Chief Executive Officer Akram Arain do not answer calls also. Sources in Lesco said that unscheduled loadshedding had turned the routine life of people miserable especially at midnight when usually no Lesco official was available to address consumer’s complaints. Besides the unscheduled and sudden power breakdowns, the company is religiously observing its unadvertised schedule of loadshedding across the City. The authorities at Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) are also not taking the unscheduled loadshedding and power breakdowns seriously and no action has so far been taken against any official in this regard. The situation becomes worse when consumers found that the Lesco official concerned of their area as well as the high-ups are not available on any number whether landline or cell phone to listen their complaints. Sources in the company said the company had prepared a load management plan under which electricity supply of all the commercial centres would be suspended at 8 pm, steel furnaces would face a power suspension from 4 pm to 10 pm and all the other industries have to reduce their load by 25 per cent; otherwise, they would have to face regular loadshedding. The sources said all these tall claims of the PEPCO authorities went down the drain, as the plan was not enforced. The situation had forced the Lahorites to undergo agony of experiencing recurring spells of loadshedding and electricity failures practically at night, which had virtually paralysed their lives. The persistent hide and seek of electricity has also given rise to acute water shortage in most areas, as taps had gone dry because majority of the tubewells operating in the City did not have any power backup facility. Majority of the residents viewed that loadshedding should not take place between 10 pm and 8 am because it ruined the day for all especially those who have to work early. Ashfaq Khan of Dev Samaj Road said the ongoing loadshedding was the worst form of torture one could face in life. He said the scenario was giving tough times to ailing and to those nursing their dear ones. It gets worse when people had to get out of their beds at midnight everyday for taking care of their electrical appliances like refrigerators etc. The surging sale of stabilizers, UPS systems and generators all across the City speaks volumes of the fact that electric appliances at homes are unable to bear the brunt of the power outages. Khalid, a resident of Samanabad urged the PEPCO officials to opt for a humane load management plan. He said the PEPCO should also ensure that the loadshedding schedule was widely advertised in media so that people could mentally prepare for this in advance. When contacted, Lesco CEO Akram Arain said that he was unaware the situation. He, quickly give a phone number (042-5727800) and said to complaint on this number in an emergency. To a question that his cell phone was also not attended, he said, “You should be concerned with the complaint not with attending the number. He added, “If you will call at that at midnight then phone will not be picked up.”