RAWALPINDI, Jan 15: A group of Commercial Market traders have criticized the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) for not replacing the faulty electricity meters and imposing heavy fines on them.

One of the shopkeepers told Dawn on Tuesday that a Wapda team with some officials of the Army Monitoring Team (AMT) had inspected the electricity meters, installed at various points at Commercial Market some six months ago.

During the checking, the team found several meters defective and sealed them. At that time, Wapda also imposed heavy fines on the shopkeepers for not informing the department about the defective meters.

Later, when a traders’ delegation called on Wapda officials, it was told that Wapda would replace the faulty meters soon and that they needed not to worry. However, despite passage of six months, Wapda had not replaced the meters, he said. Furthermore, Wapda had once again sent them inflated bills, including fines for faulty meters.

The shopkeepers are of the view that it was not their fault if the meters were out of order. Moreover, when Wapda itself had sealed the meters, then it should have replaced them till now. They said keeping in view the recession in the country and lack of business activities, they were not in position to pay the bills.

The traders said they would be taking the matter to the federal ombudsman to seek justice.

Meanwhile, XEN Satellite Town Qazi Iftikhar could not be contacted for his comments despite repeated attempts by this scribe.