Sittwe: Over 300 housemaids held a protest on Wednesday in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, by marching to a government administration office to complain of the shortage of electricity in their neighborhood, said a town elder and eyewitness.The town elder said, "Up to 300 women from Kondan Ward in Sittwe marched peacefully on Wednesday to the ward administration office through Main Street to protest against the short power supply in their area."
According to sources, the protest took place after Kondan Ward did not receive electricity from the authority for one month. The ward is located in downtown Sittwe and is home to average Sittwe locals.
The source added, "The women demanded the ward authority solve the problem of the power shortage in the ward immediately and they also threatened the authority they would continue their protest against the government if the authority failed to meet their demand."
The authority had been supplying electricity to the ward using a generator powered by rice husks, which was operated as a joint venture with a private company.
A woman from Kondan said, "We had not received power in our ward from the paddy shell-fueled generator for a month. So we were unable to tolerate such neglect of our ward by authorities. We came out onto the streets to demand electricity. We need power supplied by the government, not a private company."
Despite their public protest against the government, none of the women who participated were arrested.
The woman added that not only was no one arrested, the authorities resumed supplying power to the ward from yesterday night, a day after the protest.
In Sittwe, the authority supplies only two or three hours of electricity per night, and has since the junta came to power, but the government still continues to claim that the conditions in Arakan State have been improving under its rule.
Source :http://www.narinjara.com/details.asp?id=2564
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