GUJRANWALA, Jan 31: At least 78 electricity thieves, including a union council Naib Nazim, were caught red-handed from Naushera circle by the Gepco raiding team during the last one week.
A Gepco spokesman said the chief executive Brig Saifullah Khalid had issued directives to all SDOs to launch special drive against power thieves without any discrimination.
He said the Naushera Virkan’s sub-division team headed by its SDO raided the residences and commercial units and caught consumers for stealing electricity after tampering with their meters and installing various equipment.
The raiding team issued them detection bills worth Rs350,000 and also got registered FIRs against them.
The spokesman said that Naib Nazim Ataullah and other consumers had been stealing electricity for the last few months.
Meanwhile, the Kamoki circle also claim to have caught red-handed around a dozen power thieves during the last one week and issued them detection bills.
PROTESTED: The local chamber of commerce and industry and traders strongly protested against the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) for launching a fresh tax survey and demanded that it should be stopped immediately otherwise they would go on a shutter down strike.
Speaking at a meeting here on Friday presided over by chamber president Khawaja Tahir Hassan, the participants said that CBR officials were seeking survey form of each family member of tax payers which was not justified.
They said the CBR adopted intensified policy regarding the income assessment of total audit cases for the year 2002-03.
They said the national tax number of each family member was being demanded besides details about the expenditures. They alleged the CBR wanted to show 100 per cent rise in the income of traders which was unjustified. They demanded that the tax survey of small traders should be stopped instantly and the income declared by them be treated final.
RECOVERED: Naushera Virkan police recovered a beheaded body of a girl from a field here on Friday.
The police removed the body to the local DHQ Hospital for autopsy. Some passers-by informed the police about the beheaded body.
Police have registered a case and are investigating.