HYDERABAD: Power consumers brave the worst ever performance of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco), thanks to its unwilling field staff. Historically, performance-wise it has never been so pathetic on Hesco’s part. Situation was not ever ideal, too, in the jurisdiction of power utility that covers three divisions of lower Sindh.

To begin with, it rained briefly in Hyderabad – where Hesco is headquartered – and its adjoining districts on June 28 and then it was unending sleepless nights, power riots and prolonged outages.

One shudders to think how would Hesco deal with once a fully-fledged monsoon season starts making its presence felt in Hyderabad and its adjoining districts which is usually in July-September quarter.

First, it led to power breakdown across city and other districts with consumers going on war path, laying siege to Hesco’s sub-divisional offices and then back-to-back prolonged power outages made lives of consumers miserable. Hesco’s field staff turned a blind eye, flatly refusing to respond to consumers’ complaints while offering whimsical explanations or remaining inaccessible only to make matters worse for consumers amidst sweltering heat and fasting. It is either excuse of logistical issues like unavailability of crane, manpower and usual arrogance that consumers’ grievances remained unaddressed for hours together and even for several days.

Consumers are forced to pay several thousands to get burnt transformers repaired which is otherwise Hesco’s job to deal with. Field staff even went for having transformers repaired privately. Such predicament is in addition to unannounced load-management in which even Sehri and Iftar timings were not spared, in most cases.

Like infamous ‘half fry’ and ‘full fry’ strategy of Sindh police to curb crime, the Randhawa-led Hesco went for formula of transformer’s removal from a locality, village, or urban settlement to coerce defaulting consumers to pay dues sans giving a fig to good paymasters, who, are rather slapped with detection bills which again involved a cumbersome procedure to get it fixed.

Complaints like breaking links of transformers or wires snapping that otherwise need only serious attention are ignored intentionally for long durations only to antagonize consumers. Nobody knows why upkeep of grid station and transformers’ maintenance is not given attention ahead of summer season when complaints’ ratio increases always.

Every ordinary consumer now tends to knock high court’s door to get relief or problem fixed after failing to have a patient hearing from Hesco officers/staff.

Hyderabad Commissioner Qazi Shahid Pervez, a Hesco’s Board of Directors (BoD) member, remains dissatisfied with Hesco’s working. “It is sheer arrogance [of Hesco officers] and I am utterly disappointed with it as I was aware of people’s problems because I was moving [in the city] to see how consumers passed sleepless nights,” Qazi says. “Hesco’s CEO remains confined to his office or house though he responded to me on phone,” he says.

A department as important as Hesco is currently working under a retired chief executive officer, Akhtar Ali Randhawa, who is heading Hesco as a ‘stop gap’ arrangement under some approval that permitted him to continue till a fully-fledged CEO is appointed after competitive process that got underway on June 21. Randhawa who was brought from Faisalabad power distribution company — said to be one of best performing utility of Wadpa — is known for disciplining delinquent officials. He is being paid in the same coin by staff, indicating a virtual disconnect between him and staff. On legal front, he faces litigations in Sindh High Court, challenging his re-appointment and in one petition, filed by a deputy director, finalisation of CEO’s appointment is stayed till July 13.

“I feel there is a complete disconnect between the CEO and his subordinates as the boss has his own style of working that leads to unrest among staff which is reacting in its own way,” says a Hesco-related officer. “You need a team”, he remarks, “to deliver effectively”. “We got a complaint from Qasimabad where power transformer remained missing for 13 days and it’s just one example,” he says. He adds that Hesco’s board of directors (BoD) was not aware Randhawa would enter superannuation age in May. “It came suddenly and the BoD had to go for a ‘stop gap’ arrangement to run Hesco,” he says.

Hesco has not witnessed reforms under Randhawa though he tried to improve recovery of dues and according to an official source’s claim, line losses are controlled. The CEO might be right in dealing with Hesco staff in his own way but, on the face of it, that is only aggravating situation for consumers both in rural and urban areas.

“It was a weak rain that caused massive breakdown. Drizzle leads to multiple number of problems for us. An under-heavy-rain system gets washed and power supply keeps going,” adds Akhtar Randhawa.

“Since ‘thekedari’ system is put to an end, consumers are made to suffer [by staff],” he admits candidly. “It is their [staff] habit to put consumers in trouble by declining to attend faults to compel consumers to come to ‘terms’. Staff tries to show that the department is doing nothing and they are resolving problem for consumer as a favour, therefore they also deserve some ’favour’ from them,” he remarked.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2016