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KARACHI, May 6: The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation did not deem it proper and fit to explain why so many areas in the city suffered power breakdowns on Monday.
Sources in the KESC said that complaints of power failure had been received from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Federal B Area, Malir, Landhi, Quaidabad, PECHS, Sindhi Muslim Society, Garden East, Soldier Bazaar, Clifton, Defence, North Nazimabad, Nazimabad, Surjani Town, North Karachi, New Karachi, Hasrat Mohani Colony and Drig Road.
The Dawn office also received a large number of calls from Federal B Area, Block 14, whose residents castigated the KESC for making no efforts to repair a fault that had been plaguing the lives of citizens.
When a group of residents went to their complaint centre on Sunday night to lodge a complaint, they were told by the KESC staff deputed there that they (the KESC staff) had been under orders not to repair the wrecked transmission and distribution system before Wednesday.
An official of the Pakistan Medical Association off M.A. Jinnah Road said that he could not send an urgent email because of the power failure.
Students who took examination of First Semester at the University of Karachi complained that their peace of mind was destroyed because of a four-hour-long power failure at their examination centre.
A very indignant caller from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 13D1, told Dawn that her locality had been without electricity for the past 20 hours. “When I tried to lodge my complaint with 118, they said there was no need to lodge a complaint because the power supply would be restored in a short while.
When I contacted my regional complaint centre, they did not give me my complaint number, saying that the same complaints had already been lodged. They did nothing to remove the fault or whatever it was because we have been without electricity for the past 20 hours,” the caller related his tale of agony.
A resident of North Karachi, Sector 11-B, told Dawn that her house had been without electricity for the last two days. “My father goes to work in the morning and he cannot run after KESC people to get our power supply fixed. My mother is a cardiac patient and she is most inconvenienced by such a prolonged power closure,” she said.
WAIVER: The KESC announced on Monday that domestic electricity consumers registered with the Zakat fund and those having outstanding dues up to Rs10,000 should immediately pay in full the current April-May 2002 electricity bill to avail themselves of the relief package announced the by President Gen Pervez Musharraf.
A press release, issued by the power utility on Monday, says the electricity waiver will apply to dues up to March. Those consumers who want to avail themselves of the opportunity will have to make full payment of the current dues of April-May.
It adds that the Zakat recipients will have to approach the billing controllers of their areas. The other consumers will receive their May bills.
The billing computers have been programmed and the June bills will reflect the 50 per cent waiver as well as the instalments for the consumers entitled to avail themselves of the relief package on full payment of the April-May bills.
It adds that the domestic electricity consumers falling under the announced relief category should avail themselves of the facility before June 15.
“According to an estimate out of the total 1.7 million KESC consumers about 964,000 electricity consumers in low-income group residential areas will benefit from the relief package.”
