Residents demand bright Ramadhan

Residents demand bright Ramadhan

BENGKULU, Bengkulu: The provincial legislature urged state electricity company PLN to minimize power blackouts during the Ramadhan fasting month, which begins next week.

"We ask PLN to curb electricity blackouts in order to enable Muslims perform their religious duties during the fasting month," chairman of Commission D overseeing infrastructure Azkan Effendi Salam said on Friday.

Azkan said people could no longer accept PLN's excuses that its limited power supply had resulted in frequent electricity blackouts in the province.

"If PLN claims to be short of power, why do they always accept applications for new customers, particularly those in the 1,300 kilowatt-plus category?" Azkan said.

PLN has said it has managed to supply only 36 megawatts of the 46 megawatts of electricity demanded.

Chairman of Bengkulu Consumer Protection Foundation Ahmad Nurdin estimated financial losses suffered by consumers from frequent electricity blackouts at Rp 750 million this year alone. -- Antara