Little logic to loadshedding

KARACHI: This is with reference to a report in your newspaper which said that following a meeting of the senior management of the KESC, the Sindh governor and the federal petroleum minister, it was decided that those areas where there was little theft of electricity would experience minimal loadshedding. On the face of it, this makes sense. However, it does not seem to have been put into practice.

I live in block 3 of Gulshan-e-Iqbal and from what I can tell, most people do not steal electricity and pay their bills on time. The only culprit is a local katchi abadi situated nearby where there are many kunda connections. However, these are clearly visible to the naked eye so the KESC staff could easily disconnect them and the fact that this is not done must mean connivance at some level. While I understand the imperative to penalise those who steal electricity and deprive bill-paying customers of their fair share, I don’t understand why I should be made to suffer since the area where I live has no electricity for eight to 10 hours almost every day.

Clearly, KESC’s privatisation, in the absence of any competition, has led to the creation of a monopoly in the private sector. And that really hasn’t helped its customers at all because they still have to suffer from bad customer service and a product that is increasingly expensive and whose provision is by and large unreliable.

Mujeebur Rahman

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2011.