Power protesters warn of blocking Chitral-Mastuj road

GH Farooqui

CHITRAL: A large number of people belonging to Koh union council held a protest gathering at Mori Lasht against unavailability of electricity in their area and criticized the government for its failure to resolve the issues despite repeated protests.

Speakers on the occasion said WAPDA had established the 108 megawatt Golen Gol powerhouse while there was a powerhouse of two megawatt built by SRSP and another at Reshun generating four megawatt owned by PEDO. However, over 25,000 people living in Koh area were deprived of electricity for over a year.

They said Koh was provided power from Reshun powerhouse but after its damage in the 2015 floods, the area was deprived of electricity. Later, arrangements were made to supply electricity to the area from PESCO.

After the reconstruction of the Reshun powerhouse a year ago, supply to the area was not restored and PESCO also suspended power transmission to the consumers over a row with PEDO.

The protesters warned that if no progress was made to resolve the issue within 24 hours, they would block the Chitral-Mastuj road by staging a sit-in along with their families.