May 14, 2007	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 26, 1428

JHANG, May 13: Residents of Thatti Behram village are forced to pay power bills despite the fact that the village has been without electricity for the last nine months.

The only transformer of the small village, situated in the limits of Shah Jewna sub-division, had gone out of order some nine months back.

During the intervening period, consumers have lodged several complaints with the SDO office at Morr Mandi Colony and XEN office at Jhang, but to no avail. They allege that the Fesco staff demands a heavy back hander for the replacement of the faulty transformer.

A consumer claimed that no meter reader bothered to visit any village in the Jhang sub-division to get a reading of units. He alleged that bills with fictitious readings were sent to consumers.

He claimed that meter readers visited the village only once in a year to get the readings and then, after deducting the units already charged for, a large bill was dispatched to consumers.

The matter, he said, had repeatedly been brought to the notice of Fesco officials, but of little avail.

Reports are that the lower staff, such as, linemen and line superintendents, create faults in the machinery, particularly in transformers, and then repair or replace them after taking heavy bribe.

An area notable said that some villages had established a regular fund to meet the `inevitable’ demand of the Fesco staff to keep their tube-wells and other electric appliances operating.

When contacted, Jhang division XEN Mian Aslam said that he had directed the Shah Jewna sub-division SDO to hold an inquiry into the fictitious billing.

He, however, said that new transformers were out of stock and the faulty transformer would be replaced as soon as the company got the new one.