PESCO pleases government officers, masses suffer 21 hours power cut
Gul Hammad Farooqi
CHITRAL, December 28: The resident of Singor and Shahmiran suffered for twenty one hours without electricity for no fault of their own.
The longest power cut came as a result of the ‘efficiency’ of PESCO, the electricity distribution company, who switched the power off at around 5 PM and restored it at 2 PM the next day.
On inquiry, a PESCO official told this scribe that the power had been disconnected on the instruction of District Coordination Officer, who, the official said, had informed PESCO about an ’emergency at the District Headquarters Hospital’.
When this scribe visited the said hospital and meet deputy Medical Superintendent Dr. Yakhya Khan to know the factual position, it transpired that there had not been any emergency.
The Assistant Resident Engineer of micro hydro power house Singor, on reepated inquiry, disclosed that there is no shortage of power and the hydro powerhouse generated up to 800 KV of electricity, sufficient for the population. He said that the distribution staff may have disconnected the power for no reason.
After further investigation, it transpired that some “important guests” (government officials) were staying in Jang Bazar area and PESCO had deprived the masses to please these public servants.
It is pertinent to mention that Chitral market and Jang bazaar are connected to the national grid station while the Singor power house caters to the residential areas.
This ill-practice of elitism was also brought into the notice of chief executive PESCO, Director public relation, chief engineer operation with the request to take stern action against Pesco Chitral staff.
Residents of Singor and Shahmirandeh demanded from high ups of WAPDA and PESCO to stop torturing the masses by exercising 24 to 48 hours of illegal, unannounced, load shedding. They also demanded the up-gradation of local power house and establishment of more power house because Chitral, according to studies, has the capacity to generate up to 4500 megawatts of electricity.
