Daily Times

People have protested against the ongoing load-shedding in various areas of the city despite the lockdown.

There is power cut in the area of Gulzar-e-Hijri Scheme 33 from the past 24 hours due to which the condition of the people has worsened as they are forced to stay in their homes due to the lockdown.

Notably, the Sindh government while earlier imposing the lockdown across the province announced that there should be no load-shedding.

More than a day has passed and still the electricity has not been restored in the area. Moreover, K-Electric workers have also refused to work. Residents of the area protested outside the K-Electric’s regional office against the continuous disconnection of electricity.

Earlier, in light of the COVID-19 crisis and the citywide restrictions, K-Electric has notified Nepra that it will facilitate customers by using the consumption value of either the previous 11 months’ average or the corresponding month last year whichever is “lower”.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the power utility said this decision has been taken purely to provide relief to customers during these challenging times, especially since the CSM mechanism for average billing defines that the “Higher” of the two numbers should be considered.

However, recognizing that the current situation is particularly tough for economically vulnerable segments of society, K-Electric with intimation to Nepra will bill consumers on the “lower” of the two numbers for April. The step is in continuation of its earlier efforts to provide relief via due date extension for bills below Rs4,000. This is in addition to the option of deferred payment via instalments over three months to customers consuming less than 300 units a month, which has been announced as part of the “PM relief for COVID-19″.