Curbing power theft: PESCO to establish police stations for dues recovery

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) will establish three police stations to recover outstanding dues from defaulters and control power theft. The initiative is the first of its kind in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

“Police stations will be established in Bannu, Peshawar and Mardan districts and would be manned by a deputy superintendent of police along with 40 policemen in coordination with Pesco’s Superintendent Engineer,” said Pesco Chief Brigadier (retired) Tariq Sadozai on Tuesday.

Pesco will finance the police stations, which will solely register FIRs related to power theft.

Sadozai was addressing a public meeting of the Hydro-Electric Central Labour Union’s (HECLU) K-P chapter. The union works to protect the rights of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) employees.

Unmet demands

The union has been at odds with the Pesco administration over unmet demands, including the 40% allowance for working in high-risk areas which was announced over a year and a half ago, the 33% job quota for employing children of Pesco employees, who either retire or died during the service, and the ‘unnecessary’ transferring of lower rank staffers.

HECLU had called for a protest in front of the Wapda House in Peshawar on Tuesday to press for their demands. However, the Pesco administration met union representatives and agreed to their demands after a lengthy meeting on November 19.

The Pesco chief, however, contested the union’s demand of transferring employees, which the union’s office bearers claimed are done on political grounds. It also creates difficulties in recovering dues and controlling line losses in the region, the union alleged.



While maintaining that he is against unnecessary transfers, Sadozai said, “What do you do if, for example, a meter reader is found working at a petrol pump instead of doing his duty? Such people should be sidelined.”

“Pesco is facing losses of Rs3 billion on a monthly basis and the company can be salvaged only by dedicated employees,” he added. He highlighted the company’s success in increasing the recovery rate by four percent in September, while reducing power theft by three percent.

Unregistered union?

Terming the public meeting at the Wapda House on Tuesday as illegal, Pesco Employees Pegham Union (EPU) said that it will take the administration to court for illegal activities.

Talking to The Express Tribune, the EPU’s central chairman, Arbab Iltaf, said that the Pesco administration is facilitating an unregistered union, which is illegal. Iltaf claimed that EPU is the only union authorised by the National Industrial Relation Commission (NIRC) to protect labour rights in Pesco. The EPU has a Collective Bargaining Agent certificate issued by the NIRC.

“The administration has clear instructions not to hold public meetings in the Wapda House premises, and yet the Pesco chief attended it as well,” Iltaf said.

Iltaf claimed that HECLU is a pocket union of Pesco and resorts to “such dramas from time to time.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^st, 2012.