MANSEHRA, April 2: The persistent undeclared loadshedding and distribution of inflated electricity bills by the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) has become a constant problem for the residents of the town.

A large number of consumers showing their electricity bills to the newsmen have complained that the Pesco meter readers do not visit their houses and instead heavily charge them on fictitious figures.

They said the one-window operation introduced for correction of the puffed up electricity bills was more complicated, forcing them to repeatedly visit the Pesco office.

The one-window operation, the consumers said, resulted not only in the wastage of time but they had also to spend hundreds of rupees on taxi fare for the visits to the Pesco office for getting the bills corrected.

Under the scheme, they said, the Pesco officials had provided forms for correction of bills to the owner of a PCO in front of the Pesco city office who sell them at Rs5 each.

They further said that after the receipt of the inflated bills, the Pesco officials fill the forms and ask the consumers to collect their corrected bills after two to three weeks.

This practice, they said, had created a lot of trouble for them, on the one hand, and more chances of minting money from the consumers by the corrupt Pesco officials, on the other.

The undeclared loadshedding by Pesco for three to four hours everyday from almost 4pm to 8pm has virtually brought life in and around Mansehra town to a standstill.

It is learnt that the Pesco authorities are resorting to undeclared loadshedding to cover the line losses which are also caused by the corrupt Pesco officials.

The sources said most of the Pesco officials “have tempered with the electricity meters of their houses.”

They alleged that some of the Pesco officials had also been receiving Rs500 to Rs1,000 from domestic and commercial consumers for tempering with their electricity meters which was another cause of line losses for the Pesco.

A Peshawar Electric Supply Company official, requesting anonymity, told Dawn that the three-to-four hour loadshedding everyday by Pesco for covering the line losses caused huge loss to the Pesco revenue but the practice of loadshedding continued to conceal the thefts of the Pesco officials.