SANGHAR, July 17: There are 40,000 electric meters and hundreds of kilometres of wire available for new connections as proposals for village electrification have been invited which will be prepared by the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco), Nazims of union councils and their elected representatives.

This was stated by the Hesco chief, Brigadier Tariq Arshad, on Tuesday at the district council hall while addressing the members of the district council.

The Hesco chief further said the village electrification scheme has been divided into three categories. In the first category, electricity will be provided to those villages where electric poles and transformers are available but no cables. Hesco will install wiring at the poles. In the second category, electricity will be provided to those villages where wires and poles are available but no transformers. Hesco will provide them. In the third category, electricity will be provided to those villages where partial poles and cables are provided. Hesco will complete the scheme there too.

Brigadier Tariq defended the polycarbonated meters (crystal meters) by denying that they had been rejected in Punjab or the NWFP.

He claimed the crystal meters were theft-proof and were being installed throughout Pakistan.

He claimed that the hue and cry over the crystal meters was raised by power thieves, which also included some Hesco employees who were hands in gloves with them.

Brigadier Tariq said that the Hesco was running at a loss mainly due to power theft, and added that out of 1,100,000 consumers in Sindh, 186,000 were defaulters, and added “we are striving our best to recover the amount in instalments”.

He informed the district council members that the procedure to get new connections had been simplified a lot.

He said every complaint regarding correction of bills, overbilling, fault in meters, etc., will be entertained at the customers service centre and a proper receipt will be given to the consumer mentioning the date when his problem will be solved, and added if on that date the problem is not solved the Hesco official responsible will be taken to task and he will have to face the music.

About the power interruptions, he said some are deliberate, while some are technical. He said for this purpose, a central control centre has been setup at Hyderabad where each grid station will provide information about the tripping.

He said trolley-mounted transformers will be changed free of cost in the cities, but in the villages, where the transformer is faulty and under repairs, the sanctioned load is 25 per cent of the transformers and burns due to overloading, the villagers will have to pay.

Brigadier Tariq said that FIRs will be lodged against power thieves.

He listened to the union council Nazims regarding complaints and ordered on-the-spot instructions to Hesco officials.