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| November 4, 2003 | Tuesday | Ramazan 8, 1424 |
Power consumers being ‘harassed’
GUJRAT, Nov 3: Electricity consumers in Lalamusa are allegedly being harassed by Gepco staff in the name of anti-power theft drive.
Sources in the local Gepco office say that more than 200 consumers have lodged complaints against the area line superintendent.
A number of consumers told Dawn that a Gepco team led by the area line superintendent and aided by police had been operating in the Lalamusa municipal limits for the last four months.
“The team leader employs different tactics if no power theft is detected to make a consumer pay some bribe to avoid any trouble in the shape of a detection bill,” they alleged.
According to them, their complaints had fallen on deaf ears. Apart from several plaints to the XEN concerned and the Wapda chairman, a writ petition against the line superintendent is pending with the Lahore High Court.
The petitioner is Naveed Hussain of Gulberg Colony, Lalamusa. The respondents are XEN (Gujrat), Lalamusa city sub-divisional officer and line superintendent Tariq Ahmad.
The petitioner submitted that he dad been paying his bill regularly. The respondent No3 visited his house on Sept 22, 2003, accused him of stealing power and handed him a detection bill of Rs 30,000 for the month of September.
To save him from being arrested, the line superintendent allegedly demanded Rs10,000 from the petitioner and got his signatures on a blank paper.
He revisited the petitioner’s house at about 7am on Sept 23 and demanded Rs10,000 but was shown the door. After a few hours, he returned with two policemen and demanded Rs100,000, ten times more than the earlier demand.
The petitioner agreed to pay Rs50,000 and arranged cash by selling his wife’s ornaments. The respondent 3 again returned the next day and demanded another sum of Rs12,000. He also removed the meter but re-installed it after two days.
The petitioner reported the matter to the Respondent No1 and 2 and sought return of his money but they remained indifferent.
The petitioner prayed the court that respondent No1 and 2 may kindly be directed to proceed against the respondent No3 who had committed certain offences and that the respondents might be directed to return Rs 50,000. Another complainant, Sheikh Hafeez, of Eidgah Road, who had sent an application against the line superintendent to chairman Zulfiqar Ali Khan, had also levelled corruption charges against him. He alleged in his complaint that line superintendent Tariq took Rs700 in cash for the restoration of electricity connection at his residence but did not give him the receipt. Later, Tariq came to the house of his (complainant) father in mohallah Nizampura and took Rs1,400 in cash to change the old meter but did not give the receipt.
Tariq turned hostile against the complainant when he demanded receipts and severed electricity connection of his father’s in the name of power theft and sent a detection bill of Rs15,000 to them.
The complainant stated in his application that he had evidence against the corruption and highhandedness of Tariq.
When contacted, line superintendent Tariq Ahmad denied all charges. “All complainants are power thieves,” he said.
The SDO and XEN were not present in their offices when approached by phone.
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