Tariq Saeed
The approaching summer is going to be a nightmare for the dwellers of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the unprecedented power outage and absence of natural gas is adding to the sufferings of the already price hike stricken people.
Although, the Federal Government has announced a day earlier to conduct two to two and half hour load-shedding of the electricity a day all over the country foreseeing energy crisis, the people in the urban areas are condemned to face four to six hours of scheduled and unscheduled load shedding while the consumers in the rural areas are facing 8 to 10 hours outage daily though the summer season has not properly started as yet.
People apprehend as to how would they do in the hottest months of June and July as the Government as no solid planning to reduce the load-shedding that may get worse in the days to come forcing them to face tough times as the prices of all the essential commodities have recorded at least 200 % increase during the last two years
Few dwellers residing in the outskirts of the provincial metropolis told the Observer they are facing even 10 to 14 hours of power outage daily adding to their miseries. This is despite the fact that a big chunk of elite and upper middle class have already installed Solar panels yet the system remains out of the reach of the lower middle class and the poor strata of the society that is finding it really hard to make both the ends meet.
The painful aspect of the whole episode is that despite having less hours of electricity the consumers are receiving exorbitant bills. When the poor consumers take up the matter with the relevant quarters, even after several visits to the concerned revenue offices they get no relief. “I have only two bulbs and a fan in my one room quarter and received a 20000 thousand Rs bill and when I went to the Revenue Office I was told that I am left with no options but to pay the bill”. Not a day passes by when this scribe comes across these stories.
On the other hand, the situation of the gas supply is worse as even dwellers of the provincial metropolis are not getting the natural gas for more than two hours a day and that too with low pressure. Civic circles have complained that Despite receiving heavy Sui-gas bills the consumers are unable to get proper gas supply even for an hour adding to the anguish of the housewives who are unable to cook the food. While 95% gas consumers have switched to using the Gas cylinders as an alternative, they are finding it hard to afford that facility any longer as the LNG prices have soared to almost double in a short span of few weeks.
Since both Electricity and Gas supplies are the Federal Subject, the provincial government despite repeated complaints failed to get any relief in this regard. However, the Governor KP, being the representative of the Federal Government, in an attempt to provide relief to the masses, raised strong voice and held meetings with those at helm of affairs of both the companies yet despite repeated assurance from the bosses of the electricity and Gas companies for the early resolution of the issue, people failed to get any relief and it appears even the Governor KP concern was taken as far granted.
