LAHORE: The introduction of meter reading through cell phone imaging technology has failed to do away with discrepancies or irregularities which existed in the earlier system.

Faizpur subdivision in Lahore Electric Supply Company’s Ferozewala division is a case in point, where the meter readers allegedly used ‘dummy meters’ to get the images for onward reporting to the billing section, discrediting the efforts being made to improve the system.

According to a recent audit report compiled in November by the Power Information Technology Company (PITC), a subsidiary of the Ministry of Water and Power, the monitoring officials randomly checked meter reading images of 130 of the 28,007 consumers in the subdivision and found that most of these were taken from dummy meters and not the original ones installed at sites/premises.

Overall in eight subdivisions of Ferozewala, as many as 806 meter reading images were analysed and 612 of them were found correct.

In Gulshan-i-Ravi division, the report mentions checking of 725 sampled bills among 130,588 in total and found 694 of them as matching with the original reading.

Ravi Road division stands with 550 correct bills out of the 600 sampled ones among 114,885 consumers.

The meter reading mentioned in 576 of the 597 sampled bills among 109,613 consumers/bills was found correct in Data Darbar division, while 584 of 636 bills among total 110,045 consumers of Badami Bagh division were found accurate.

All the aforementioned divisions fall within the territorial limits of Lesco circle-1.

In Circle-2, says the report, 1,073 sampled bills of the 177,746 in Township division were analysed, out of which reading mentioned on 975 bills matched with the original ones.

Of the 95,180 consumers of Raiwind division, 459 sampled bills were checked revealing reading mentioned in 436 bills as correct. The report states that 1,047 of the 165,294 bills in Allama Iqbal division were checked, out of which 905 had the correct reading.

Among 118,036 consumers in Samanabad division, reading mentioned on 606 sampled bills was checked. However, 589 of these were found accurate. In Civil Lines Division, 437 of 476 bills appeared to be based on actual reading. There are 93,328 Lesco consumers in the division.

In third circle, 706 of the 728 sampled bills were found correct in Shalamar division, 524 of 602 in Mcleod Road division, 828 of 856 in Mughalpura division and 572 of 604 sampled bills in Baghbanpura were declared correct.

In Lesco’s fourth circle, 876 out of 920 sampled bills in Okara division, which has 196,676 consumers, were found matching with the original reading. Renala has 427 of 463 correct, Deepalpur 618 of 645 and Hujra 490 of 536.

As for fifth circle, 683 of 708 in Gulberg, 838 of 865 in Defence, 579 of 595 in Kot Lakhpat and 889 of 946 bills in Cantonment divisions matched with the factual readings.

The report says the sixth circle, which is generally called Sheikhupura circle in Lesco, 820 of 910 in Nankana, 716 of 737 in Shahkot, 696 of 734 in Fort, 614 of 628 in city and 548 of 580 in Muridke divisions were found correct.

In Kasur circle (seventh circle), the reading mentioned in 457 of 467 in Kasur city, 612 of 627 in Kasur rural, 696 of 776 in Chunian, 629 of 762 in Phoolnagar and 332 of 336 in Kot Radha Kishan division matched with the factual ones.

An official, who spoke to this correspondent on the request of anonymity, said: “The corrupt elements still exist in various divisions and subdivisions but their number has reduced as a result of the efforts being made to improve the system through certain checks.”

He said it’s surprising to find out Faizpur subdivision’s case, where reading mentioned in most sampled bills was reported to the billing section after being taken from the dummy meters. “Senior official will penalise the wrongdoers,” he said.

The Lesco chief executive officer could not be contacted despite efforts to seek his comment.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2016