Power protesters block Chitral road at Drosh

DROSH: People of Drosh town in Lower Chitral on Friday morning blocked the Chitral-Peshawar road in protest against prolonged power outages.

A shutter-down strike is also being observed in the town and nearby areas. The protesters started the shutter-down strike and blocked the road after a deadline given to the government to meet their demands ended this morning.

Talking to ChitralToday, Drosh Action Forum president Irshad Mukarar said the road would remain blocked till the district administration resolved the outages issue and transferred the subdivisional officer of Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA).

He said the people of Drosh were fed up with prolonged power crisis and had two demands: zero loadshedding and transfer of the subdivisional officer WAPDA. 

The residents earlier held a protest at Drosh bazar 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.