Lights out: Over pending dues, power cut for hundreds of slum dwellers

IESCO severed their connections on Nov 14 after they failed to clear Rs5.6m dues.

ISLAMABAD: Around 482 households in the 100 Quarters slum in Sector F-6/2 have been without electricity for the last 14 days after the Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (Iesco) severed the only electricity connection in the area.

The slum is the city’s oldest and one of the six ‘katchi abadis’ recognised by the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

Over 150 protesters led by J Salik on Thursday protested outside the CDA chairman’s office after the civic agency failed to intervene to resolve their issue.

According to locals, a 200 KVA transformer was installed in the area in 2005, connecting 482 housing units to a single meter. Within two years, the transformer broken down and was replaced with a 400 KVA transformer, but the houses were still hooked to a single meter.

Locals formed a committee to collect electricity bills from each household on the basis of estimated month consumption — calculated using the number of inmates in every house — but over time, disputes arose over actual consumption, with some residents complaining they were paying more than their usage.

Locals said they tried to get regular meters for each house, but to no avail. Due to incessant disputes among the residents over electricity charges, some households stopped paying their bills. On November 13, Iesco disconnected power.

According to a survey recently carried out by the Christian Youth Uplift Forum (CYUF), the slum consists of 482 housing units, but the CDA recognises only 305 housing units in the slum. The CYUF survey results have yet to be ratified by the CDA board.

In 2014, former water and power secretary Nargis Sethi also asked Iesco to resolve the issue.

The company then wrote to the CDA, asking for a layout plan along with a no-objection certificate for installing meters in the locality, but the CDA is reluctant to provide the necessary permissions, as it still has not ratified the slum’s survey findings.

“In November, every household was asked to pay at least Rs5,000 as installments against outstanding power dues to avoid disconnection, but most of the residents are poor and barely make Rs12,000 a month. They refused to pay,” CYUF spokesperson Shahzad Anjum said.

He said the issue could only be resolved by installing individual meters on every housing unit. CDA Katchi Abadi Cell Deputy Director Arshad Chohan said that the ratification of survey results by the CDA board was delayed because locals had a dispute with the authority over the findings.

“They complained about the exclusion of some rightful owners from the survey,” Chohan said, adding that on the direction of CDA high-ups, a fresh case to resolve the issue had been forwarded to the CDA board.

CDA Administration Director General Shohail Durrani, who held negotiations with protesting slum dwellers on Thursday, said he had sought some time from them to get the necessary approvals from the civic agency’s planning wing for the installation of individual meters.

He expressed hope that issue would be resolved within the next seven days.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2014.