NAUDERO: Life in Naudero, Shikarpur and other areas in the adjoining region has come to a standstill due to unannounced and prolonged electricity load-shedding of 16 to 18 hours. Reportedly, the Sukkur Electric Power Company (SEPCO) officials claimed that there has been a technical fault developed in the main Lodhran grid station five days ago, forcing managers at the power distribution center to resort to load-shedding. Earlier, six students fainted at government girls’ primary and secondary schools in Naudero on August 6, due to suffocation caused by prolonged power outage in the scorching heat of summer. Meanwhile, a delegation of Shehri Action Committee (SAC) led by its members including GhulamHyder Narejo, Mushtaque Kumbhar, Javed Bhutto and others held a meeting with SEPCO sub-divisional officer (SDO) Sajad Memon. He informed the delegation that electricity detection bills were being sent to the consumers on the directives of high authorities, and assured that he would attempt to resolve the issue with them. He claimed that load-shedding would reduce to ten hours a day once the Lodhran grid station was repaired. However, the SAC members rejected his assurance, and gave him an angry ultimatum, warning that if the issue would not be resolved on the priority basis, they would observe a complete shutter-down strike in the region. Later, the MPA-elect Faryal Talpur, the municipal committee chairman Allah Dino Bhutto and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Syed Arshad Shah Rashdi also held a meeting with the SDO Sajad Memon in this regard. The SDO assured them that he would limit load-shedding up to nine hours a day and no detection bills would be issued in the future. However, the SAC leaders stood by their decision, and called for a shutter-down strike on August 12. They urged the people of the region to gather in front of municipal office at 9 am. Published in Daily Times, August 10th 2018.