SYLHET: Power-hungry people of Lamabazar and Konapara in the city on Saturday night blockaded Bandar-Rikabi Bazar road to demand installation of a transformer as the old one blasted.

Hundreds of residents of the areas took to the street at about 8pm and put up barricades on the road, disrupting traffic for about one and a half hours.

They removed the roadblocks following assurance given by RAB and police high officials. And the ruptured transformer was replaced later in the night.  

Local people alleged that they gave Tk 11,000 as “bribe” to an engineer of the local power office on August 9 for repairing the transformer that went out of order the same day.

Later, the power office installed a faulty transformer, which exploded on August 13, leaving two people injured and the area in the dark.      

Deputy Assistant Engineer Farid Ahmed, however, denied any incident of bribing for mending the power machine.

BDST: 1220 HRS, AUG 15,2010