NAUNDERO: All five city feeders were forcibly shut for 16-hours by local SEPCO officials despite presence of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Faryal Talpur in Naundero on Sunday.
SEPCO Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) Sajad Memon and other officials kept their mobile phones off as calls and messages sent to them brought no respite.
After brief rain at about 12am onwards last night, the grid station in-charge Suhail Lashari closed entire supply to the town and its adjoining areas and it remained off till Sunday morning. When the duty staff resumed their duties in the morning, they were approached by the citizens upon which they replied that they were searching for the fault.
The SEPCO party was led by lineman Yasin Lashari who was posted recently as line superintendent for City Feeder-1 in violation of apex court orders. The party failed to detect and remove fault being inexperienced till mid-day.
In the meantime, the same party reached Garibabad locality and removed links of one Pole Mounted Transformer (PMT) and were also de-linking 11000 kv line when the area residents reached on the spot and soon a minor clash took place between them. The SEPCO party returned empty handed but refused to restore electricity supply to the entire five feeders demanding registration of case against the relevant consumers.
On the other hand, consumers Pathan Kori, Ali Dino Kori and others alleged that the same SEPCO party was getting monthly payment from every house and shop of the area then why are they depriving the residents of electricity supply in the extremely hot weather and that too in the Holy month of Ramadan.
They further alleged that both grid and operation line staff have forced the residents to undergo over 12-hours prolonged load shedding daily against the declared schedule of 8-hours in Ramadan.
They protesters said that they are PPP voters but when their electricity supply is forcibly disconnected without any reason, they will not vote in favour of PPP candidates in the forthcoming general elections as nobody has so far reached here to help them.
They further alleged that massive corruption of SEPCO authorities was not hidden from the consumers and now they were forcing the users to pay more than usual to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr in the name of showing their efficiency.
They warned that if SEPCO highhandedness is not stopped, then they will go to the court against the “corrupt” mafia and hold protests for their fundamental rights. They said illegal detection bills are monthly issued to every meter holder which proves SEPCO local authorities’ worst corruption and negligence.
They said when there is daily 12 to 14-hours load shedding then why detection bills are issued against legal consumers. They urged NAB, FIA and other probing agencies to investigate the assets of the local employees and expose them for action.
The protesters also demanded immediate removal of Yasin Lashari and stern disciplinary action against him and his henchmen.
The supply was restored at 5 pm on Sunday evening after 16-hours forced outage and was again put off for 30-minutes to remove a faulty PMT.
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