The Lahore Electricity Supply Company (LESCO) got registered a record number of over 9,000 FIRs against the consumers, allegedly involved in power theft, and recovered over Rs 230 million as penalty from them. LESCO Chief Executive Officer Sharafat Ali Sial, while talking to APP on Sunday, said a special campaign on the directives of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had been launched for recovery of arrears, especially the dead ones, and against power pilferage. He said 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 the power theft in a furnace plant. He said the campaign launched in July last year was yielding positive results as LESCO mobile teams, each headed by XENs and SDOs, were active and conducting successful raids, adding that special emphasis had also be laid on the recovery of dead arrears from chronic defaulters which stood Rs 3 billion.
Sial said raiding teams have been constituted at sub-division, division and circle levels and their overall output was being monitored on weekly basis. He said special counters had also been set up for immediate reconnection after payment of default amount, while instalment of current bills had been banned. He said the concerned XEN and SDO would be suspended if the connection of any defaulter was restored without payment of arrears.