Drosh residents protest against power outages

DROSH: Residents of Drosh started a sit-in protest against power outages that have badly affected routine life and business activities.

The Dharna was arranged by Drosh Action Forum and joined by residents of Drosh and nearby areas, including representatives of all political and religious parties.

The speakers at the protest sit-in blamed the subdivisional officer (SDO) of WAPDA for the issue and said he deliberately resorted to prolonged power outages despite availability of surplus electricity produced at the 106 megawatt Golen Gol powerhouse.

Speakers on the occasion said that the Golen power plant produced 106 megawatts of electricity and the former federal government had sanctioned allocation of 36 megawatt for Chitral. Even 10 to 12 megawatts could meet the demand of Chitral but the local consumers were being denied the right by the WAPDA officials.

They said most of the areas in Upper Chitral and some in Lower Chitral met their requirements from private hydel powerhouses but the Chitral town, Drosh and adjacent areas were not being supplied electricity from Golen. 

They also criticized the elected representatives of Chitral for their failure to resolve the basic issues of the local people. They said due to the political tussle between the federal government of the PML-N and the KP government of the PTI the people of Chitral had been denied their due rights.

The protesters said that they would continue the Dharna at Drosh bazar Chowk untill the resolution of the loadshedding issue. They also demanded transfer of the SDO for his deleberat attempt to deprive the locals of the basic facility of electricity.

The protesters warned that if the loadshedding issue was not resolved with round-the-clock power supply the people of Drosh would take control of the grid station and operate it on their own.