SWABI, Sept 1: The Swabi District Council warned on Saturday that if the engineers of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) failed to attend the council session on Monday, its members would hold a meeting in the utility’s offices.

The council members led by Ijaz Khalid also staged a walk out against the late arrival of District Coordination Officer Adil Khan to the council. Mr Khalid alleged that the DCO had deliberately reached late to the house.

They said the Pesco officials were taking their salary and must perform their duties according to the demands of the people. If they could not do so they should resign.

The council members were infuriated by the absence of two Xens who did not attend the session. The council was debating the issue of ‘inflated’ power bills and the continued prolonged loadshedding in the district.

The council secretary had informed the engineers that they should be present at the council session on Saturday, but even then they ignored the call.

The council strongly rejected the overcharging and fine without any reasons and declared that the poverty-stricken people had been receiving ‘inflated’ bills and whenever they visited their offices the officials adopted various tactics to deceive them.

Buland Iqbal, Shahbaz Khan and opposition leader Ishfaq Khan came down heavily on the Pesco officials and said that the Pesco staff had adopted extremely rigid position and created numerous problems for the consumers.

“If some drops of rain fall the Pesco staff would quickly stopped the power supply for hours and if a consumer want to contact the official he would never attend the phone and a reply would come from watchman that he is not available,” said Shahbaz Khan.

The council warned them to change their approach and instead of agonising the people help them and if they failed to come forward they would face the people’s anger.