A large number of domestic consumers are unduly facing long hours of power cut as Lahore Electric Supply Company has connected them to commercial lines instead of residential, Pakistan Today has learnt.
LESCO has put many domestic consumers on commercial grids, which implies that these houses face increased power outages with the commercial users. In some areas however, the transmission lines have been separated but mostly, commercial and domestic users are getting electricity through same lines. According to LESCO schedule, load shedding of 8 to 10 hours is carried out in the city areas and 12 to 14 hours in rural areas.
The electricity for commercial users is closed for two hours consecutively during the afternoon from 2 to 4pm and during the evening from 8 to 10pm and also for four to six hours in other times of the day, whereas, domestic users have to face one hour closure after every two hours. However, in many areas like Township, Johar Town, Green Town, Samanabad, Walled City, Gulberg, Wahdat Colony, Rehmanpura, Iqbal Town and Mughalpura the consumers have to suffer power outages according to the commercial schedule.
The domestic users said they had tried to contacts LESCO many times but to no avail.
In Township area, the domestic users have to suffer load shedding because a cinema is located close by. “We have asked the XEN many times to separate our electricity line from the cinema but no one is ready to listen to us,” lamented a domestic user Samiullah adding it was a genuine problem but no LESCO official was taking it seriously.
Similarly, in many parts of the city the domestic users are on commercial lines due to presence of markets and shopping malls in their areas. “What is my fault if there is a main market near my house?” questioned a housewife Beenish Naseer adding it was very difficult for her family to have dinner. “The power is closed from 8pm to 10 pm and that’s the time when we sit for dinner,” she added.
LESCO officials said it was not possible for them to shift domestic users to domestic feeders. “We have computerised the record of each user in the grid and the outages are carried out according to the record,” said an official of LESCO adding that large amount of funds were needed to shift users from commercial to domestic feeders.
