VEHARI, Feb 19: Residents of some 50 villages of 13/WB on Monday protested against the Mepco’s Vehari circle by right of absence of electricity for the last 48 hours.

They said thieves had stolen about 6,500 meter wire from 11-KV main electric line on Saturday night.

They fled after loading the wire they had collected from 18 electric poles on their truck besides some 52 valuable electric dock conductors.

They said that Mepco authorities were informed about the incident the following day, but the power could not be restored till the filing of this report.

When contacted, Mepco official Muhammad Jawed said that the total loss of the wire and conductors was over Rs1.5 million while Vehari Sadder police had registered an FIR of the theft incident.

Vehari circle XEN Attaullah Bhutta said the electricity would be restored during the next two or three days as work for the restoration of power supply was going full steam ahead.

While several residents of affected villages, including Abdul Rasheed, Younis, Liaquat, Allah Ditta and Abdul Karim, claimed that the repair work was going on at a snail’s pace as officials worked only for three to four hours a day.

Mepco officials said that the fresh wire and conductor theft incident was the sixth in the Vehari district, but the police failed to trace even a single case so far.

Requesting anonymity, an official said that some Mepco employees were involved in wire theft incidents.

TRANSFER LIST: At least 122 police officials are facing a threat of transfer in Vehari owing to a ban recently imposed by the Punjab government on posting in the home district.