Load shedding schedules: Grid stations asked why they aren’t following plan; LESCO employees facing life threats

[LRE]

Load shedding schedules: Grid stations asked why they aren’t

following plan
* Grid station officials say people threaten to kill them if they don’t reduce load shedding time

By Hasan Ali

LAHORE: The Water and Power Ministry has asked almost all major grid stations of the city to explain why they are not following the load shedding schedules.

Grid station officials said that they were not following the schedules because of threats from the people.

They told Daily Times on Saturday that the public had threatened to kill them if they did not reduce the load shedding time. They said that they feared for their lives and had started cutting electricity 10 minutes later than the scheduled time and restoring it 10 minutes earlier than schedule. They said, “This way, we hope to lessen the people’s anger and to convince them that we want to reduce their suffering, but we also have to obey our seniors.”

A Johar Town grid station employee said, “An unidentified called once told me that if I didn’t switch the power back on, he would come to the station and cut my throat.” He said that he had tried to calm the caller down. “However, I can’t calm everyone down. I get so many such calls. I read in the papers that people have been killed over load shedding and the violence that ensues after power cuts. I am afraid a similar situation in Lahore, especially at my grid station. I don’t know what to do? We are being pressed from all sides,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Water and Power Ministry came to know about the situation and issued notices to grid stations in the city. A WAPDA official told Daily Times that since the issuance of the notices, the grid stations had started following the load shedding schedules.

He said that the authority’s seniors did not approve of the act of reducing load shedding time. He said that since the reports started coming in of grid stations not following the schedules, the National Control Centre (NCC) was looking directly into the issue and had given strict orders for officials to follow the load shedding schedules.

PEPCO Spokesman Razaul Haq Siddiqi said that he was not aware of the issue, as such issues were handled at a higher level or by the ministry directly.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...008_pg13_1