Emeutes de l’électricité à Lahore, Rawalpindi, Qasur, Jehlum, Sahiwal et Sialkot – 2 octobre 2011

Power riots rock Lahore, other Punjab cities

dawn.com

3 10 2011

By Intikhab Hanif

LAHORE: Worsening power crisis not only triggered violent demonstrations in several cities and towns of Punjab on Sunday but also sparked fresh tensions between the provincial and central governments.

In Lahore, people burnt an office of the electricity supply company (Lesco) and official vehicles of an SP and a DSP. The DSP and several other policemen were injured while trying to disperse violent demonstrators protesting enhanced power loadshedding. Police used teargas, fired in the air and used batons to beat up people in several areas. In Bahawalnagar, protesters also stormed the house of an MPA.

The electricity shortfall on Saturday exceeded 8,000MW. On Sunday, unofficial estimates suggested that the shortage had gone up further, leading to 20 hours of loadshedding in Lahore and other cities.

Pepco authorities put the deficit to 6,976MW over the past 24 hours. They said the generation was 9,878MW and the demand was 16,854MW.

They expressed the hope that the situation would improve in about 36 hours because of a government decision to make payments to power generating and oil companies. Read more…