LARKANA: Unannounced electricity load-shedding of up to 18 hours has hit hard the consumers in Larkana, and its adjoining region, and consequently crippled the businesses being run on power supply. Reportedly, the owners and employees of furniture, mechanics, and tailoring outlets claimed that they had been paying millions of rupees to the Sukkur Electric Power Supply Company (SEPCO) and the government in the form of taxes, but they were being deprived of basic necessities of life. A number of employees associated with the industries said that due to unusually long power cuts they had been rendered jobless. They said they had no other skill to earn a living for their families. Their owners said that it was almost impossible for them to pay salaries of the employees because their businesses had been battered by 16 to 18 hours of outages. Furthermore, students have been undergoing severe difficulties during their studies as summer vacations have come to an end. Meanwhile, the SEPCO authorities did not respond to consumers’ complaints despite repeated calls. The chronic power outages have not spared even hospitals, a sheer violation of directives issued by the apex court’s Water Commission. Several Pole Mounted Transformers (PMTs) were not being repaired or replaced by the authorities, instead citizens were being asked to pay the repairing cost. For the last 15 days, PMT of the Government Primary School of Railway Colony has been dysfunctional, causing severe hardships for the students in school amid scorching heat of summer. Their teachers Aftab Burdi, Aslam Khokhar, Ghulam Muhammad Wagan and others revealed that many students fainted due to the heat while there was no electricity in the school from 9 am to 12 noon every day, and the concerned sub-divisional officer (SDO) did not resolve the issue despite of filing complaints with him several times. A SEPCO consumer, Khan Bahadur, said that he was sent a monthly bill of Rs 30,000 while his monthly salary was Rs 15,000. The consumers demanded to the high authorities to implement an effective check and control mechanism to monitor SEPCO’s employees work and performance for eradicating corruption and mismanagement from the department. Moreover, they demanded solar systems to be installed in all government-run and private institutions. Meanwhile, Naundero has been receiving electricity for only six hours a day, with businesses coming to a standstill and markets wearing a deserted look as seven PMTs have been inoperative for the last several weeks. Four girls fall unconscious On Monday, four girls fell unconscious due to suffocation, in hot and humid weather, while studying in their classrooms. They were rushed to a local hospital for medical attention. The residents warned to carry out a complete shutter-down strike against the power supply companies, if the load-shedding is not reduced to around eight hours a day. Published in Daily Times, August 7th 2018.