Shutter-down, road blockades from 27th
DROSH: A complete shutter-down and road blockades would be observed in Drosh town against prolonged power outages from Friday morning.
This was announced by Drosh Action Forum President Irshad Mukarar after the end of a protest held in Drosh bazar on Wednesday evening.
Mr Mukarar in the presence of the representatives of all political parties, civil society, driver and trader unions said that the district administration had still a day to meet their demands.
He said that the people of Drosh were fed up with prolonged power crisis and had two demands: zero loadshedding and transfer of the subdivisional officer WAPDA.
He said if the demands were not met, a complaint shutter-down abd road blockades would be observed from 8am on Sept 27 (Friday).
The protest by the locals continued for three days under the Drosh Action Forum and was 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.
They said 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.