KARACHI, July 10: The National Assembly's Standing Committee on water and power on Saturday expressed its satisfaction about the newly installed electricity meters , while taking serious notice of illegal electric connections (kundas) in some areas of the city.

The chairman, standing committee, Sardar Saleem Jan Mazari, with seven MNAs and members of the committee visited the KESC Model Zone Korangi Industrial Area, Bilal Colony and Bhitai Colony.

They checked some electric meters in the presence of UC Nazim, KESC officials and area residents, during their visit to Bilal Colony and found all of them to be correct.

The chairman of the committee and its members expressed their satisfaction over the speed of the new meters, and said that propaganda against the same was not correct.

Later, they visited Bhitai Colony, the area where the KESC was facing more than 80 per cent line losses.

They took serious notice of the "kunda system" and instructed the KESC to remove these gradually.

The committee also asked the KESC to issue notice to area residents for getting regular connections, besides instructing the utility to start a special campaign for providing legal connections and installation of meters in Bhitai Colony from July 19, saying that after 15 days, there should be no "kunda" installed in the area.

XEN KESC, Ibrahim Hydri assured the committee that the campaign for legal connections would be initiated from the date mentioned.

The committee also listened to grievances of area residents regarding billing, and directed the KESC officials to redress these.

The chairman and members of the committee vowed to take every step to redress the problems of people regarding electricity and water, and added they would visit Karachi again after 15 days to review implementations of their directives.

They earlier visited KESC Model Zone Korangi Industrial Area, where they were briefed by MD KESC Brig Tariq Sadozai.-PPI