KARACHI, June 15: Power cuts, which observe no holidays in the city, continued unabated on Sunday while the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation did little to check electricity breakdowns.
Calling from Defence, Phase VI, a KESC consumer said his locality had been facing prolonged and fitful power breakdowns for the past two days and the power utility seemed to have done nothing. “I have often read the statements of the KESC managing director saying that a large chunk of KESC revenue is collected from Defence. Similarly he is also on record as saying that power theft is Defence has been reduced to zero. Is this how the KESC rewards the residents of Defence?” he wondered.
He said that out of the past 48 hours, his locality had been without electricity for more than 30 hours. “Is this really possible in this day and age? What is the use of keeping the army in the KESC when it cannot discharge its duties properly?” he observed.
A very irate resident of Malir called to say that two days ago the area transformer had developed some fault which the KESC had failed to rectify so far. “How long does it take to fix a transformer? Certainly not two days. Either the KESC staff had made no serious effort to rectify the fault or the transformer has broken down so seriously that it should be replaced. I also read some reports about mobile transformers introduced by the KESC. Why has one of the mobile transformers not installed in place of the faulty one in my locality on a provisional basis?” he wondered.
A KESC consumer, Gufran Ahmed Khan, sent a fax message to Dawn to lodge his complaint. His fax says: “There are a few connections in Altaf Town which have been taken by people using kundas. They are paying a sum of Rs200 per month for this kunda and in this way they not only deprive the KESC of a huge income but also make others suffer as they use electricity carelessly. This results in power failures.”
Mr Khan suggests that the KESC relaxes the policy of issuing new connections to consumers so that they do not resort to unfair means.
Sources in the KESC’s centralized complaint centre, better known as 118, told Dawn that on Sunday complaints of power breakdowns had been received from PECHS, Malir, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Bangalore Town, Malir, Sindhi Muslim Society, Garden East, Federal B Area, Surjani Town, Defence, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, North Nazimabad, Golimar, Nazimabad, Kharadar, Korangi and Shabbirabad.
A resident of Federal B Area, Block 15, said that there had been a fluctuation in power supply to his locality for the past one week.
“No step seems to have been taken by the KESC to rectify this fault. The situation has become so bad that when we have to switch on our air-conditioner we switch off our deep-freezer and vice versa. We do not know how long this problem will last,” he said.
