PESHAWAR, March 28: The Water and Power Development Authority has started disconnecting electricity supply to the Frontier Regions (FRs), forming part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), due to accumulation of billions of rupees’ arrears against the consumers.

A Wapda spokesman here on Wednesday claimed that the electricity consumers of FR Peshawar, FR Kohat, FR Kurram, FR Bannu and FR Tank jointly owed Rs3bn to the utility, accumulated against them as arrears over the years.

In this respect, electricity supply being made from the Darra Adamkhel’s feeder to parts of FRs was disconnected late at night on Tuesday after the tribesmen did not pay heed to the notices served on them recently by Wapda for payment of their electricity dues.

According to a press release issued here on Wednesday, the electricity consumers in the FRs consume, on an average, Rs500m electricity every month.

Whereas Wapda hardly raises Rs3m revenue against that amount (Rs500m) making 0.6 per cent of the total value of electricity FRs consume in a month.

The release said that in line with the Wapda chairman’s recently-issued instructions, electricity supply to other parts of FRs would also be disconnected if the tribesmen did not clear their dues at the earliest.

Justifying the move, the Wapda spokesman said the electricity consumers of Frontier Regions were being issued notices for the last three years and a half, intimating them to clear their liabilities.

Our Correspondent from Darra Adamkhel adds: A large group of tribesmen took out a protest procession at Darra Adamkhel against the disconnection of electricity supply to their areas, on Wednesday.

The protesters warned the government that if electricity supply was not restored, they would destroy the Wapda’s power distribution lines passing through their areas, linking the southern districts of the NWFP and parts of Punjab with the utility’s national grid.

Till the filing of this report, a representative delegation of tribal elders and political authorities of Darra Adamkhel were busy holding negotiations to resolve the issue.