KOHAT, Nov 10: The Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) has been resorting to 16-hour power loadshedding daily in Kohat district despite the claim of the Ministry of Water and Power that outages have been ended due to low demand in winter. The power theft is also increasing due to unprecedented hike in electricity prices and corruption by Pesco metre readers.

When contacted, an official in the Rescue 15 helpline centre said that on contact the staff at the Rawalpindi grid station told him that there would be 16-hour daily loadshedding. Consumers said that the grid station, complaint cell of Pesco and city complaint cell did not answer calls where phones had been deliberately kept busy.

An official said that the gap between demand and production of electricity was still very high. Moreover, he said that the power distribution system was so old that smooth electricity could not be provided. He said that even if the electricity was available they would have to resort to outages to save the grid and transformers from heating and damage.

Meanwhile, the electricity unit price has been significantly increased but without any respite in power cuts. The power thieves with the connivance of metre readers are still stealing it openly. The jewellery bazaar where every shop has three to four air-conditioners the bill usually does not cross Rs900 a month. Similarly, for the 100 shops at old jail building only four metres have been installed and rest of the money from other shops is being pocketed by Pesco officials, said the sources.

They said that after the recent government orders for taking action against electricity stealers, the metre readers had also increased their booty from Rs500 to Rs1,000 per month.

There are some black sheep in the department who reverse metres after every six months and put less number of units round the year in the bills of consumers.—Correspondent