Life without power

Residents of Karachi should raise their voices for their rights. They should come forward and join hands to protest against K-Electric which has failed to meet the power needs of the city. The cases of overbilling are increasing day by day. On top of that, now the power company charges extra for consumption exceeding 50 units. A surcharge is also applied when consumption exceeds 300 units. What adds more to the injury is that many areas face eight to 10 hours of loadshedding on a daily basis. In addition, at least once or twice a month the entire area is shut down for maintenance work.

In reality, power remains out for half of the day. Therefore there is no justification for charging customers such high prices. Calling KE offices for registering a complaint is also useless. The representatives have no idea why the power is out or after how long electricity will be restored. They give the standard reply, ‘Power is out because of a technical fault.’ What do the authorities want us to do? Should we come out of our homes, block roads and protest against KE? Electricity is a basic need of citizens and it is unfortunate that our government has failed to provide the uninterrupted supply of this basic facility to the people.

Muhammad Usman (Karachi)