LAKKI MARWAT: The power loadshedding-hit people of Lakki have refused to let their children immunised against the crippling polio disease.

The revelation came up at a meeting held at the district headquarters complex, Tajazai, on Saturday chaired by deputy commissioner Mohammad Bakhtiar Khan.

The meeting reviewed arrangements for the anti-polio campaign commencing from Monday. `The district administration has provided full cooperation to Pesco to curb power theft and improve recoveries but despite that loadshedding duration has not been reduced as per commitment,` said Mr Bakhtiar.

He said the residents of several localities who had boycotted previous anti-polio drives to protest excessive outages were convinced through jirgas to vaccinate their children on the promise that the excessive loadshedding would be done away with, but the Pesco failed to honour its commitment.

The deputy commissioner said local residents were also confronted with acute water shortage as they could not run tube-wells owing to prolong electricity breakdowns. Correspondent