HYDERABAD, Oct 28: Heads of different government departments have complained that new meters installed by Hesco are running very fast as compared to old ones.

The complaint was lodged at a meeting of District Coordination Officer Ali Ahmed with the regional and district heads of the provincial government departments regarding verification of provincial government electric connections/status of installed meters and billing position held here on Tuesday. The regional and district heads of the provincial government departments and Hesco officials attended the meeting.

The DCO asked the regional and district heads of the provincial government departments to submit lists of electric connections of their offices in three days so that they could be physically verified and their bills could be reconciled.

He said that the task for verification of electric connections of the provincial government departments had been assigned to DCOs by the chief secretary of Sindh therefore his administration had started the exercise.

He said that the task could be completed in a proper manner and within stipulated period only with the cooperation of the concerned departments.

Taking notice of replacement of old meters on the pretext of faulty meters without intimation to concerned departments, the DCO directed Hesco management that henceforth no meter should be replaced without advance intimation or taking the concerned department into confidence.

He said that before replacement of any electric meter, the status of the old meter, including its reading, should be kept on record in the presence of representatives of each stakeholder organisation. Similarly, he said that new meters should be installed after proper testing and satisfaction of the concerned department.

The chief engineer of Sukkur barrage complained that new meters were running very fast as compared to old ones.

The DCO sought proper verification of charged units in excess and testing of new meters by a third party to avoid injustice to the government organisations which were not in a position to pay huge bills issued by the Hesco management.

The DCO urged Hesco officials to accept ground realities of physical verification of electric meters.