Angry residents of Upper Chitral decide to lock Reshun powerhouse

BOONI, Jan 15: The Tehreek Huqooq-e-Awam (Movement for the Rights of the People), upper Chitral, has announced its decision to lock the Reshun powerhouse and all government departments in Booni from January 20. The decision has been taken after the management of the powerhouse in Reshun informed the residents of the area that under the new arrangements electricity would be provided to the domestic consumers only for four hours daily. The Movement has for long been demanding that the government should take action against corrupt departments for embezzling public funds in the name of development in the area. However, so far no government functionary has even bothered to listen to the public outcry. As a last resort, the representatives of the Movement have decided to take the extreme step and lock the departments. When asked why the people wanted to lock the Reshun powerhouse, Rehmat Salaam Lal, the president of the Movement’s power committee, told ChitralToday that the masses in the whole area had become fed up with the government’s rampant violations of their rights. He said the Reshun powerhouse had been established on funds provided by foreign countries, including Germany, in return for the area people abandoning the cultivation of Charas which for years was one of the main sources of income for the locals. “On the promise of the government we totally stopped the cultivation of this main source of our income and the government established the powerhouse as one of the steps to compensate for our economic loss.” He said a lineman from Charsadda had been posted in the Reshun powerhouse for over 10 years who not only continued insulting the people but was also a hindrance in proper production of electricity from the plant. Mr Sallam said that the SHYDO employees had told him that the powerhouse was being destroyed at the hands of the lineman and even spare-parts were being sold out by a mafia. He said the management of the powerhouse was providing electricity to stone crushers, furniture makers and other business concerns to generate cash but was not ready to ensure at least eight-hour long electricity to the domestic consumers. He said with the latest decision of the powerhouse management to provide only four-hour electricity to the domestic consumers, the area people had become frustrated and wanted to close the powerhouse as they did not want to remain without power for the remaining 20 hours each day.  ]]>