A photo of a grid station that was attacked by militants. PHOTO: MUHAMMAD IQBAL/EXPRESS
GHALLANAI:
Militancy and its consequences in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas have brought many miseries to the people of the region in the past decade.
Lights out
Where hundreds of schools, health institutes and administrative offices have been destroyed in the violence, large-scale corruption continues to eat away at the heart of the region, no holds barred. Safi tehsil of Mohmand Agency has remained one of the most affected areas, where over 60 educational institutes have been destroyed. The ones that remain are on the brink of collapse.
Lakarho Grid Station of the agency is the only source of power supply to Safi and also to some parts of Nawagai tehsil of Bajaur Agency, providing energy to hundreds of thousands of people. However, the station was closed in 2008 over serious security threats. Officials of the Tribal Areas Electric Supply Company (Tesco) stopped work, leaving behind locally-hired private technicians for its daily operation and maintenance.
Off the grid
Jamshed Babar, an official at Ghallanai grid station, refused to share any information regarding Lakarho.
However, another official at the Tesco office in Peshawar, Muhammad Hussain, confirmed the development. Hussain shared regular staff was working at the grid till 2008, when they had to be transferred to Ghallanai instead. In 2011, these staffers were posted back to Lakarho, but Hussain claimed he did not know whether they were performing their duties or not.
“What I can confirm is that they draw their salaries from Tesco regularly,” he added.
When asked how they manage load-shedding and collect meter reading data without staff at the grid stations, Hussain said the data is collected from Shabqadar instead of Lakarho. The official said he would make further inquiries, since the workers should have resumed active duty at the station.
Private vs public
Tribal leader Gul Shah told The Express Tribune the residents of the locality have hired private technicians for the station, whom they pay Rs100 per month per transformer.
“Since there are over a thousand transformers in the area, the technicians are very satisfied with their job,” commented Shah. Yet, the elder accused the privately-hired employees of power theft.
“They take huge bribes from marble factories in Mamad Ghat in Mohmand and Nawagai in Bajaur Agency, and our power is supplied to them instead.”
Shah has complained to Tesco officials and the political administration about the issue, but nobody has taken any action.
According to him, the factory owners also want to keep these technicians around instead of Tesco staff at the grid station – for their own benefit. To keep this arrangement, one share of money also goes to Tesco officials at Ghallanai, said the elder.
The National Accountability Bureau of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) is investigating officials in the agency, and the Supreme Court chief justice has also taken notice of mismanagement in the past. However, without the presence of any authorities to monitor irregularities, no action has been taken.
Four hours in 24
Ghallanai and Ekka Ghund in Mohmand Agency currently face over 20 hours without any power every day.
The more distant areas of Safi Ambar and Baizai work on a rotation system, where the power supply is resumed for an interval after every 48 hours.
However, the marble industries in Warsak and Michni receive power from Tesco at a fixed bill of Rs30,000, despite falling under the jurisdiction of K-P.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 21st, 2014.
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