Power woes: Kalam residents vexed by electricity bills

Complain they have been issued bills when they have no electric supply; Pesco says bills are valid.

SWAT:

Residents of Kalam do not have electricity supply for the past two years but they have been issued electricity bills as high as Rs20,000.

Residents complained that the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) has issued them utility bills ranging from Rs3,000 up to Rs20,000 when electricity supply to the area has not yet been restored.

Electric supply to upper areas of Swat, including Kalam, Peshmal, Kalam, Utror, Usho and Gabral, was cut off during the 2010 floods. Electricity poles leading up to the areas were uprooted and the major grid station at Madyan was also damaged.



“We have been demanding the government to reinstall electric supply lines in our area, but instead we get such high bills. It makes no sense,” said Rahmat Faqir, a resident of Kalam who has been sent a monthly utility bill of Rs13,872.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government promised to waive off all previous electricity bills but instead we have been issued bills for the electricity we did not even consume, said Faqir. “The government must stop bullying us with such tactics or we will rise up against it,” he warned.



Nazir Ahmad, another local whose electricity connection was disconnected three years back, said he was shocked to see that Pesco has sent him a utility bill of Rs4,000. However, he said he feels “lucky” to have been issued a utility bill of only Rs4,000. “Most of my neighbours have been sent bills of over Rs10,000.”

Locals have warned Pesco and the government that if the bills were not nullified and electricity supply to their area was not restored, they would hold protest demonstrations across Swat.

When contacted, Pesco Superintendent Mohammad Karam said the bills have been issued only to those people who have been provided electricity connections and insisted that there is no mistake in the bills. “If people in Kalam have complaints, they should record them in the office of SDO at Khawazakhela,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 30^th, 2012.