MEPCO miscalculations: Reading far too much into it

Meter readers helping MEPCO inflate power bills in Multan.

MULTAN:

Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco) meter readers complained that they have been threatened with suspension if they do not follow company policy despite complaints of having added units into consumer bills.

“We have been threatened repeatedly with the loss of our jobs even though we know that the company has been overcharging consumers,” said a meter reader who chose to remain anonymous. Mepco meter readers told reporters that over 11 people had been suspended for violating company orders and for not overstating the bill readings.

Mepco employees told reporters that over 350,000 additional units were added into consumer bills last month. “This sparked a series of protests and locals in the area began attacking the offices. We were ordered to keep silent on the matter for the sake of our jobs but it is still going on,” said Mepco worker Hammad.

Protesting against the Gulgasht sub divisional officer Rana Tanveer, he added that several Mepco employees had tried to raise the issue through the hydro power union but no one was willing to listen. “We tried to approach the authorities with what was going on but they already know and we have been ordered to keep silent,” he said. “They said that in the end they will leave us to face the enraged consumers and it would all be pinned on us,” he added.

“They said that when the protests got really bad, and they will, they would blame us and then later have us suspended. We have still refused to inflate the bills but the senior management needs to be stopped,” said a Mepco worker.

Tanveer said that dozens of Mepco workers had requested that the Moosa Paak division executive engineer suspend the Sub Divisional Officer and other meter inspectors who had been threatening them. “Three people, including the general secretary, Rana Ishaq have been suspended,” he said. Meter reader Akhtar Javed Malik told The Express Tribune that this was happening all over the district. “It isn’t just in the Gulghast Division. The same thing is happening across the board and bills are being inflated because the company has been unable to recover arrears,” he added.

“There is no check on the electricity theft and as many senior officials have been supporting misreading and exaggerating the meter readings,” he said. “Everyone has been blaming the meter readers even though we have been expressly ordered to inflate the bills at the cost of our jobs,” he added.

Locals in several districts and tehsils have been protesting against Mepco for filing extra units in their bills which have been adjusted and corrected after the protests got violent last month. “Even so, we have had to visit the Mepco offices dozens of times to have the bills corrected. It has happened again this month,” said a consumer, Rasheed.

Gulgasht resident Salman said that two months ago Mepco readings listed 600 extra units in his bill. “I had to face so much red tape to have it corrected that it took me a month and now I have the new bill, which also needs corrections,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2011.