Consumers decry power cut as KE ‘punishes’ defaulters

Protesters block road in Chanesar Goth locality

KARACHI:

The power utility, K-Electric, on Friday disconnected power supply to the Chanessar Goth locality and resumed supply after more than 14 hours. As per an official of the company, the move was meant to make defaulters pay their bills.

Even in the winter, the K-Electric, punishes consumers who pay the bills regularly instead of precisely targeting the defaulters, residents of the locality said.

The residents of Muhammadi View Apartment in Chanesar Goth while blocking the main road leading to Mehmoodabad protested and requested the authorities concerned to take notice of power supply cut. "We have more than 30 flats in our apartment. All pay the electricity bill on time, but there is no power for the last 14 hours in our apartment," said Nadir Hussain, holding the paid bill in his hand.

He further said, "when we registered a complaint to the officials concerned in K-electric, they said that supply was cut off because some people living in the area had not paid the bill."

The utility company should cut connection of those who do not pay on time. "Why are we being punished at the cost of defaulters who have nothing to do with our building. Not a single house in our apartment owes to K-electric."

Ghulam Nabi, another resident of the apartment was of the view that there was around six-hour load shedding daily in the area, but indefinite outage has compelled people to protest on the road. "Every month we pay the exorbitant bills even in winter. Their policy to supply uninterrupted power to those consumers who timely pay the bills, has utterly failed." He added that K-electric must develop such a system under which those consumers are exempted from the outages who pay on time.

The protest led to traffic congestion in the area as many vehicles to and from Chanesar Goth, Mehmoodabad, Azam Basti and other areas got stuck. The people chanted slogans against K-electric.

Speaking on the issue, Adil Murtaza of K-electric was of the view that he would look into it, directing the concerned officials to restore the power without any delay. "I have talked to the GM of the area and power will be restored," he said.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2022.