Ghatail people agitate protesting power outage

Several hundred villagers besieged the local office of Power Development Board (PDB) in Ghatail upazila of the district yesterday, protesting frequent power outage and low voltage.

They also demanded an end to issuance of ghost-bills by a section of dishonest PDB employees.

Villagers of Kuripara, Ganjana, Chokpara, Diabari, Sikibaid, Makrai, and Gandhi villages joined the hour-long agitation programme from 12:00noon yesterday.

Addressing a rally in front of the office, the speaker alleged that several thousand clients under Nolma Feeder have been suffering for long due to inadequate power supply as they get electricity for only three to four hours a day.

They also urged the authorities concerned to take immediate steps against those PDB officials, who harassed their valid customers by sending ghost bills.

The PDB officials sent an average bill to all its customers without monitoring the meter reading, said Lal Mahmud of Makrai village.

Some villagers complained that when there is no load shedding low voltage hampers their activities.

The agitators left the place after Assistant Engineer (distribution) Pradip Kumar assured them of resolving the problem soon.

They later went to upazila parishad complex in a procession and submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister though Ghatail Upazila Nirbahi Officer Asma Ara Begum.