PESHAWAR: The Peshawar Electric Supply Company on Monday launched a fresh campaign against illegal power connections.

Sharing details about the campaign Pesco executive engineer Nadeem Afridi told Dawn that a comprehensive plan had been devised to control the power losses, recover the dues and overcome power theft which will help control the frequent power tripping and low voltage.

“We have started the work following the instructions of Pesco chief Dr Mohammad Amjad and contacted the relevant elected representatives, MNAs, MPAs to extend support to the raiding parties of the power body,” the official said.

On the first day of the drive, he said the consumers of one feeder in various localities, including Arbab Road and Peshtakhara, had been checked where fresh meters were also installed and the out of order meters were replaced. New connections were also given to the people and up to Rs60,000 dues were recovered, he added.

The Pesco officer expressed the hope that the issues pertaining to illegal connections would be controlled because the local elected representatives had assured the company of their full cooperation in this connection. He said if the people started paying the utility bills and stopped using electricity through illegal means then the issues of low voltage and tripping would be solved.

Efforts were also made to talk to the concerned superintending engineer Tahir Jamal but he could not be approached on telephone.

Pesco spokesman Shaukat Afzal said that the raiding teams in different areas would run the campaign without any break to overcome the problems once for all. He said the power theft was directly affecting the ‘good’ consumers as they also had to face the power outages due to the overloaded system.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2018