KARACHI, Jan 2: The residents of Gulberg Town are in for bad days as the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation and the town administration are on a collision course over the digging of roads following the detection of power theft in the town’s centre of sports and culture.

KESC sources told Dawn that a five-member team had been taken into custody at the directives of the town Nazim for digging roads on Thursday. The team had been released afterwards.

The Gulberg Town Nazim, Farooq Naimatullah, said he had had the KESC team arrested for violating the municipal rules under which a carpeted road could not be dug at least for six months without permission from the authorities concerned. He added that the town administration would not cooperate with the power utility which acted arbitrarily in detecting cases of power theft.

A KESC surveillance and theft detection team on Wednesday discovered a case of large-scale power theft in the centre of sports and culture in Gulberg Town.

The KESC alleged that the centre of sports and culture was pilfering 45 kilowatts through a three-phase cable directly from the KESC pole and supplying it to a marriage lawn. A fountain and nearby lights were also being lit after bypassing the meter.

Mr Naimatullah said that if the KESC had discovered power theft why it had not arrested the culprits and sealed the meter. He added that the town administration had done a lot to curb power theft during Eid.

“During pre-Eid shopping days I had issued clear instructions that no Eid bazaar could be set up unless the organizers showed a KESC challan showing that electricity arrangements had been properly made. It is a pity that while we did so much to help the KESC recover its outstanding dues from people, the power utility is operating in the town in a highhanded manner,” he said.

KESC officials, however, insisted that they had gone by the book by arresting power thieves. They recalled that the case of power pilferage at the centre of sports and culture in Gulberg Town had been the case of biggest power theft in the city.

They feared that if the town administration did not cooperate with the KESC it would become very difficult for the power utility to carry out repair work in the town. They added that staff at the local power station were extremely resentful because their colleagues had been arrested for doing what was their job.