KARACHI, Jan 28: The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation has managed to net an amount of Rs93 million from more than 12,000 defaulters who did not cough up the outstanding dues until their power connections were severed.

Official sources told Dawn on Monday that in a recovery drive spanning over 12 days the KESC disconnected supply to more than 12,412 defaulters, who owed over Rs953.7 million to the power utility.

“The defaulters paid 50 per cent of the outstanding dues upfront. They would pay the remaining amount in instalments. In this way, they have come within the ambit of the KESC recovery process.”

They said that as many as 2,845 KESC consumers had had their power connections reconnected on payment of the 50 per cent of the outstanding dues.

The KESC officials said that the recovery campaign, conducted by the power utility staff as well as army monitoring teams, the personnel of the rangers and the police, had covered Saddar Old Town, Korangi Industrial Area, Federal B Area Industrial Area, SITE, North Nazimabad, New Karachi and Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

“From today, the joint recovery teams included the Defence Housing Authority.”

They said that KESC high-ups were scheduled to meet Sindh Governor Mohammedmian Soomro on Feb 4 to inform him about the outcome of the ongoing recovery drive and to urge him to help the power utility make government departments pay up. They added that the Sindh government had in principle decided to allow the power utility to disconnect the connections of all those government departments who owed some amount to the KESC.

“The decision applies to all government departments except for some priority departments.”

A monthly meeting, presided over by Major General Tahir Mahmud Qazi, GOC Air Defence Division, at the KESC headquarters reviewed the ongoing recovery drive. The meeting, attended by KESC managing director Brig Tariq Saddozai, Army Monitoring Teams chief Brig Irfan Ali, 45 Air Defence Brigade commander Brig Syed Javed Iqbal and other officials.

The meeting looked into the slow recovery of more than 9,000 supplementary bills issued earlier. The KESC managing director said that soon a separate crash programme would be chalked out by the billing department.

Major Qazi asked the KESC to come up with such a loadshedding plan in which only power thieves were punished. He said that such a survey be done which identified the feeders and transformers under use of power thieves. “Loadshedding be carried out by switching off those feeders and transformers which are used by the power thieves. This practice will go a long way towards reducing transmission and distribution losses.”

The meeting also decided to disconnect power supply of those consumers who have not paid security deposit and system development charges.