Protesters however remained on the key bridge across the Demerara River linking Mackenzie and Wismar and Police in a press release said that "situation is receiving attention".

The bridge has been blocked with trucks and other vehicles the tyres of which have been punctured.

Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, yesterday afternoon told reporters in Georgetown that the protests had dampened but the situation was being closely monitored.

Security forces have been deployed to ensure that routes in and out of the town are safe, but one of their major objectives is the prevention of vandalism, he said.

Police Monday reported several acts of banditry in Linden and said "patrols and other security arrangements have been intensified in specific areas."

In one incident, a gang of about 12 men smashed the glass door of a businessman's store at Lot 27 Coop Crescent, Linden and carried away $5,000, nine wristwatches, three Nokia cellular phones and a cap, Police said.

The protest started on Friday with the blocking of several bridges and roads and Police had expressed concern at the "unwelcome trend of several acts of banditry that have now entered into the equation of protest action by members of the Linden community..."

The ferry service across the Demerara River resumed yesterday and several business places reopened after being forced to close when the protests began last week following the collapse of the electricity generation system run by the privately owned Linden Power Company (LPC).

Asked whether there has been any evidence of the protests being politically motivated, Luncheon replied in the negative, stating that these were spontaneous and reflected the frustration of the power outages and the poor supply of services.

"No one has made a case for political motivation," he added.

The electricity shortage also affected the supply of potable water to the Linden community and Luncheon yesterday said the Government's intervention has led to some relief to residents in the mining town.

He said the relocation of mobile generating sets from the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) would enable a scheduled number of hours of electricity to be supplied to residents of Linden.

LPC, the Linden Mining Enterprise Limited and the Linden Utility Services Coop Society Limited, in a joint statement yesterday afternoon, announced that LPC was generating 2.6 megawatts of power utilising the two Caterpillar generator sets loaned by GPL.

One set was later reported down for servicing but power was expected to be restored to some areas last night.

The statement said LPC also expects to have its steam power plant in operation by Saturday and this will allow for an improved level of power supply to most areas.

LPC has ordered replacement turbo-chargers for the two diesel sets at the diesel plant. These turbo chargers are expected to be delivered in three weeks and in the interim the sets on loan from GPL will remain to supplement generation from the steam plant, the entities said.

In addition, two Caterpillar generator sets will be ordered this week by the Guyana Government and delivery of the sets in Guyana will take five weeks, the statement said.

Police said full power was restored to Ituni at about 13:05 hrs yesterday.

Luncheon said components for the LPC steam plant had arrived at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport and these were reported on site by last night.

LPC, Linmine and the Coop Society in their joint statement, outlined a revised load shedding schedule which is based on the available generation and which came into effect yesterday.

The revised load shedding schedule is:

** Area `D' - Wismar Back - 11:00 hrs to 17:00 hrs

** Area 'B' - Residential Back (Amelia's Ward, Kara Kara, Rainbow City, Industrial Area), - 17:00 hrs to 23:00 hrs

** Area 'A' - Residential Front (Central Mackenzie, Cockatara) Richmond Hill, -23:00 hrs to 05:00 hrs

** Area 'C' - Wismar Front (Burnham Drive, Silvercity, etc.) and Village - 05:00 hrs to 11:00 hrs.

The statement said this schedule is based on the availability of the generator sets and is subject to change without notice.

The entities also called on all consumers to conserve on their use of electrical power.

At his weekly news briefing, Luncheon said Cabinet was updated at its sitting yesterday on the power situation in Linden and the steps being taken to bring some measure of relief there.

He said the interventions by Central Government and the Regional administration were somewhat hampered by vandalism and protest actions including the blocking of bridges and roadways and the burning of tyres by residents.

It was reported to Cabinet by Prime Minister Sam Hinds that in addition to the relocation of the generating sets from GPL, urgent repairs were being carried out to return LPC's main generating plant to service, he said.

As regards potable water supply which has been severely affected by the lack of electricity, Luncheon said that as soon as the pumps are hooked up to the electricity system water supply through the pipelines will resume.

But in the meantime water is being distributed through tankers and with the aid of a fire tender, he reported.

Asked whether the grave situation could have been averted through preventative action, he conceded that LPC has been plagued by continuous problems due to failure of its equipment which has resulted in residents being "fed a diet of power outages."

However, he pointed out that the company being a private one did not necessarily warrant the Government's intervention until the failure of the second diesel set and its involvement is actually a "bailing out" of LPC.

Responding to the view that it would seem that both GPL and LPC which were privatised were bad deals, Luncheon said while this may be superficially so, closer scrutiny may indicate that the problems that arose with them might be outside the realm of the agreements.