Current account: Ibrahim Hyderi residents and KESC fight over unpaid bills

Hundreds of people travelled nine kilometres to reach the office of KESC at Qayyumabad.

KARACHI:

Enraged over a 15-day long power outage, the residents of Ibrahim Hyderi area took to the streets on Tuesday, burning tyres and damaging private property along Korangi Road.

Hundreds of people travelled nine kilometres to reach the office of Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) at Qayyumabad and blocked its entrance for three hours. Young men stopped traffic and pelted passing vehicles with stones along the way.

Ibrahim Hyderi is located in Bin Qasim Town and has many small settlements, mostly inhibited by fishermen. KESC cut the power of Umer Colony on February 20 after the residents didn’t pay electricity bills.

A social activist of the area, Haji Usman Ghani, said that KESC cut the power of 2,000 houses. “The company assured us that if we cleared 100 bills they will restore the power,” he said. “We cleared 134 bills, but they haven’t fulfilled their commitment.”

Part of the problem is that most of the houses in Ibrahim Hyderi are not connected to the power grid. They use kundas.  For such houses the KESC has imposed a fixed charge of Rs700 per house.

“They are sending us bills of 1995 and 1996,” said Ghulam Rasool Baloch. “Someone has to pay Rs500,000 and others Rs600,000. We don’t have this much money.”

In a scathing reaction, KESC condemned the “violent agitation.” It said that 973 consumers from the area have defaulted on Rs83 million. The customers have been not been paying their current bills and the previous ones either. The defaulters have been offered an arrangement to pay their current bills plus a nominal instalment of Rs500 each in arrears.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2012.