Social responsibility: KESC to avoid load shedding in some exam centres

KARACHI:

The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has stated that it will be able to avoid cutting power at approximately 55% of examination centres from 9 am to 12 pm when the matriculation exams take place.

KESC’s deputy chief financial officer Mohammad Shehzad Yousuf stated this in a letter to Sindh Chief Minister’s chief secretary, Agha Jan Akhtar. He described the decision as “corporate social responsibility towards the community.”

Akhtar, through a letter dated March 30, asked the power supply company to exempt 249 schools from load shedding during the slot of 8 am and 1 pm from April 5 to May 7.

“This is notwithstanding the fact that the schools in question are scattered all over the city and nearly all of them are located in high-loss localities where electricity theft is high and bill recovery is low,” said Yousuf in his reply to the chief secretary.

Yousuf also requested the government’s education departments to pay their electricity bills on time so that students did not suffer. “The education department and public sector schools now owe a total of Rs115 million.”

BSEK’s controller Prof Rafia Mallah, appreciated KESC’s decision. “We, however, hope that the company would find ways to expand its decision for the rest of the schools so that some students would not feel discriminated,” said Mallah while talking to The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2012.