LAHORE, Jan 8: The Lahore Electricity Supply Company (LESCO) got registered a record number of over 9,000 FIRs against consumers allegedly involved in power theft and recovered over Rs 230 million as penalty from them.

Lesco Chief Executive Officer engineer Sharafat Ali Sial told APP that special campaign had been launched for the recovery of arrears and against power pilferage.

He said that a package of special incentives had been offered to employees and informers for effectively detecting the theft of energy.He said recently a Lesco raiding team was given Rs 200,000 for detecting power theft in a furnace plant.

He said that campaign launched in July last was yielding positive results as Lesco mobile teams each headed by Xens and SDOs were active and conducting successful raids.

He said special emphasis had also be laid on the recovery of dead arrears from chronic defaulters which stood at Rs3 billion.

Sial said that raiding teams had been constituted at sub-division, division and circle levels and their overall output was being monitored on a weekly basis. — APP