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For the second time this week, a group of angry citizens seized a power station Wednesday in Dagestan after their electricity was shut off because of unpaid municipal debts.
Electricity to the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala, and its suburbs was cut by 20 percent last Thursday because of the city's 998 million ruble ($32 million) debt, the Interregional Distribution Grid Company, which supplies electricity in the North Caucasus, said in a statement.
About 50 people broke into the power station in the village of Uchkhoz on Wednesday morning, the Dagestani Power Supply Company said in a statement, RIA-Novosti reported.
The people kicked out an employee on duty at the station, switched the distribution feeders back on and surrounded the station to protest the electricity shortages, the statement said.
It was the second such incident this week in Dagestan.
At about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, a group of 60 to 70 people, most of them women, stormed a power substation in Sulak, switched the distribution feeders back on and secured the station with their own locks, the Interregional Distribution Grid Company said in a statement, RIA-Novosti reported.
Law enforcement officers and local officials looked on silently as the group switched the power back on, RIA-Novosti said.
On Tuesday, Makhachkala residents cordoned off several streets in the city to protest electricity shortages, Ekho Moskvy radio reported.
Full supply to Makhachkala and its suburbs will not be resumed until the city pays its debt, the Interregional Distribution Grid Company said.
Dagestanis Seize Power Stations
28 May 2009
The Moscow Times
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