NOORPUR THAL - The demand of Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) units, batteries, power inverters and generators has increased manifold due to scheduled and unscheduled power outages in urban and rural areas here.

A market survey conducted by The Nation revealed that nowadays, these products are being sold in the market on exorbitant rates.
The shortage of batteries has also increased the miseries of the customers.
According to the suppliers the demand of UPS has increased manifold as the citizens are expecting the worst loadshedding during this summer. This year, UPS prices range between Rs 6,000 and Rs 18,000, depending on capacity of the unit. Various varieties of UPS are available in the market. A dealer of imported and local-made UPS, said the demand for the locally made UPS has almost doubled while the demand for Chinese UPS is noticing downward trend as it is costly while on the other hand, its repair charges are also high. Most of the customers said that they have to cut their expenses to save money to get new power back-up equipments.
Budget not providing any relief to masses: Former Jamaat-e-Islami Tehsil Ameer Malik Muhammad Waris Jasra said the federal budget did not provide any relief to the masses but had substantially added to the perks and privileges of the parliamentarians and the presidency.
Talking to this scribe, he said that during the last four years of PPP-led government, the poverty rate had risen to 45 per cent and half of the country’s population was living below the poverty line.