Pyuthan, February 2:

Students in Pyuthan today padlocked the office of Butwal Power Company for an indefinite period, to protest the load-shedding against a past agreement not to impose load-shedding in the district.

Addressing a corner meet after the lockout, NSU district chairman Bishnu Kumar Giri said the lockout would continue until uninterrupted power supply was ensured.

The BPC said it was forced to introduce power outage due to a pressure from the Ministry of Water Resources.

“District based political parties unanimously decided that the load -shedding could not be tolerable in the district at any rate,” Hari Rijal, UML district secretary, said.

“We want the agreement respected,” NC district secretary Amar Bhandari said. Stating that Pyuthan locals had borne the brunt of hydro project construction, he said, “We will not let the power outage be introduced in the district at any cost.”

Pyuthan houses the 12 MW Jhimruk Hydropower Project constructed with the financial assistance of Norway. At least five MW of the power should be distributed in the district as per the project agreement. According to BPC, the peak power demand in the district is only about one MW.