Residence express anguish at prolonged loadshedding

Reacting to prolonged power suspensions, residents of various localities here on Sunday held protest demonstrations and shouted anti-government slogans. The angry protesters set ablaze tyres and shouted slogans against the government at the Chungi No.9, Khanewal road. Protestors blocked the Roads for more than a couple of hours by observing sit-in in scorching heat when mercury risen to 47 degree centigrade.
However, police rushed to the spot in order to disperse the protestors. The power consumers at Chowk Nawan Shehr areas held protest demonstrations against power outages and warned to block Roads by observing a sit-in to force the government on taking steps for ensuring smooth power supply to the areas. They said that load shedding duration further increased to 14 hours in urban areas and 20 hours in rural areas. While people of Multan are also facing additional undeclared load shedding due to corruption and power theft with the collaboration of MEPCO staff. "The MEPCO is sending us inflated bills every month, but power supply is next to nil because electricity remains suspended for about 20 hours daily," said protestors, who led the protestors at Khanewal Road.
They said that power outages had led to serious shortage of water in different localities and people were being faced with many problems as they had to fetch water from far-off tube wells. Similarly, residents of New Multan, Shah Runk-i-Alam Colony, Masoom Shah Road, Gulgasht, Peer Colony, Wilayatabad, and Mumtazabad also expressed grave concern over power outages and demanded that the area should be linked to urban feeders instead rural areas. President of Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) Muhammad Khan Saddozai said that manufacturing sector badly hit due to long duration of power load shedding. He said that mill owners forced to shut one shift of their units which caused the unemployment of more than 50,000 workers who are the only bread-earners of their families. Muhammad Khan Saddozai said that Textile mills and value added units which were manufacturing exportable are unable to meet the demand of foreign buyers and meeting the export targets. He suggested that new Government should give top priority to the energy sector to strengthen the national economy.