Unpaid bills: PESCO teams fear retribution over recovery drives

Suburban area of Badhaber remains challenge for detection teams.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) is spearheading a campaign to recover electricity dues in areas where officials fear physical retribution.

The suburban area of Badhaber has always remained a challenge for Pesco officials, who have to decide whether to disconnect illegal power connections or demand consumers to clear outstanding bills.

The region is adjacent to Frontier Region (FR) Peshawar and Khyber Agency, with electricity losses running in millions due to non-payment and illegal connections, Pesco spokesperson Shaukat Afzal told The Express Tribune. “It is one of the areas Pesco officials hesitate to go to and though we have started a recovery and disconnection campaign there, it remains difficult.”

Afzal claimed the power company has to depend on the police when recovery teams visit the area. “The police only accompany us occasionally after repeated requests. Sometimes we succeed in disconnecting illegal connections and recovering dues. But other times, officials have to retreat out of fear of being physically assaulted.”

However, not all their efforts are as futile. Afzal informed the Pesco detection team of Deh Bahadar subdivision successfully disconnected power supply to defaulters from six distribution transformers.

Similarly, eight industrial connections were disconnected due to nonpayment of Rs600,000 in the area along with 15 commercial consumers who collectively owe Rs1.5 million. The power supply of about 350 domestic consumers was also severed over unpaid electricity bills. More than 300 direct hooks were removed while 18 people have been nominated in an FIR, said Afzal.

In Mattani sub division, illegal hooks were disconnected from 100 KVA transformers, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2013.