No power for the people

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

* VIPs, govt installations receive uninterrupted power supply at expense of common man
* LESCO providing 500 to 700MW to VIPs
* ‘Favoured’ places include Chief Minister House, Governor House, President House, Prime Minister House, high-profile offices and defence installations
* Power protests continue for third day

By Afnan Khan



LAHORE: At a time when load shedding has made people so miserable that they have taken to the streets in protest, Punjab government authorities are busy distributing a significant chunk of electricity to bigwigs in the provincial metropolis.

Lahore Electricity Supply Corporation (LESCO) sources told Daily Times that the city is currently facing a shortfall of around 1,500 megawatts. They said citizens were getting less than 1,000 megawatts a day, while the rest was being supplied to the privileged elite.

LESCO officials said the supply of 500 to 700 megawatts of the total electricity to a few privileged politicians and bureaucrats was adding to the plight of the people who have been crippled by substantial business losses and soaring temperatures. LESCO believes citizens could receive electricity at least half the day if all of it were equally distributed; but its uninterrupted provision to a few ‘VIP localities’ was behind extra load shedding.

Power-ful areas: The ‘favoured’ places include the Chief Minister House, Governor House, President House, Prime Minister House, certain high-profile offices, defence installations, public hospitals and the Sharifs’ Raiwind farmhouses, among others. These places do not facing power breakdowns and there are special power lines and, in some cases, double lines to prevent outages. LESCO authorities had started shutting electricity down to common residential areas for two to three hours every one hour daily in a surprise move in contrast to their public announcement that they were only cutting electricity for 10 hours.

Protests continue: Citizens continued their protests against load shedding on Sunday. One of the major demonstrations was held at Liaqat Chowk in Sabzazar, where residents blocked the main road adjacent to Multan Road, and burnt tyres while chanting slogans against the government for failing to keep its promises.

Imran Khalid, a demonstrator, told Daily Times, “It is a sorry state of affairs that the government has been unable to keep its promises.” He said the federal government failed to keep its promise about abolishing load shedding by 2010 while the local governments, including Punjab government, were passing on the burden to poor people while keeping the ruling class in total comfort. “The country is heading towards a state of anarchy and the rulers, living a life of luxury, are neglecting the problems of citizens,” said Imran. “What could be more ironic than a situation where people are being supplied electricity after two to three hours of delay even on Sundays when all industrial units and offices are closed, but LESCO claims it’s only cutting the power for eight to nine hours a day,” he added.

However, while talking to Daily Times, LESCO spokesperson maintained that it was only shutting the power down for nine hours a day and denied there were power breakdowns for two or three hours after every hour. He added that public hospitals and a few important places were exempted from load shedding but he abstained from mentioning any names. He said that LESCO was only a district level department that followed the instructions given by higher authorities.