HYDERABAD, Feb 3: Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi on Saturday directed the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) Chief Executive Maqbool Ahmed Khwaja to step up the company’s ongoing drive against defaulters and disconnect power to all the consumers who owed the company more than Rs100,000.

The minister asked the Hesco officials while presiding over a meeting to restore power only after clearance of dues.

The company should issue bills payable in three instalments to the consumers who wanted to get their connections regularised and grant new connections under discounted package, he said.

He called for strict action against power thieves and the people who had obtained vandalised connections through kundas. Power connections to all the defaulting Sindh government departments and autonomous bodies should be disconnected if they failed to pay dues, he said.

Mr Jatoi said that the high officials of Sindh government had made it clear that they had released funds to all the field offices to pay dues and announced a cash award of Rs1.2 million for 73 employees of vigilance committees and taskforce for the recovery of dues.

He praised the Hesco chief for bringing down line losses during the month of December by 1.6 per cent and making a recovery of Rs1.2 billion more than that of last year.

Mr. Jatoi later told a group of reporters that there was no shortage of water or power in the country and international entrepreneurs were coming forward to invest in power sector.

The meeting was attended by all the chief engineers, managers of six operation circles and senior officials of the company.