Drive against power theft launched in K-P

Federal Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan says police, district administration to back PESCO teams

PESHAWAR: Almost 65 per cent line losses of Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) are concentrated in Bannu, Mardan and Peshawar districts, said Federal Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan.

“The kunda culture will not be tolerated anymore in the country,” he said addressing a press conference in Chief Minister House Peshawar on Saturday.

“I have directed Pesco to start operation against kunda users from today,” Ayub said.

Power utility’s recovery teams will have police backup, he said and informed the media that he has directed DPOs, DCs and other relevant departments to help Pesco. People found stealing electricity will be booked and prosecuted as per law, he said.

He said that the main cause of power shortage was electricity theft from the use of hooks (kunda) directly connected to power cables. According to data, Pesco suffered losses worth of Rs65 billion due to kunda connections across the province so far in 2018. As for Peshawar, he said, power thieves stole Rs4 billion worth of electricity from Pesco this year.

He assured the people that load shedding will come down in proportion to power theft, “lesser the power theft, lesser the load shedding.”

“We have also formed task forces to work on elimination of line losses,” Ayub said.

He acknowledged that some employees of Pesco were involved in overbilling: “we have planned to hire third party for the audit of the institution for better performance.”

To avoid line losses, the government will soon start replacement of cables across the province from our own resources and have discussed with technical department to enhance the profit of the ministry and better services, federal minister added.

Regarding share of province in the power generation revenue he said: “I have discussed the affairs of the Ministry of Energy (Power Division) as well Pesco with Prime Minister Imran Khan and soon the K-P hydroelectric profit portion would be release to the province.” Ayub said he had also discussed issues of the energy ministry and Pesco with the K-P’s parliamentarians.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2018.