Power woes invoke minister’s wrath

• Abid Sher Ali suspends Revenue Officer, five SDOs, over dozen meter readers on public complaints at Rawalpindi’s open kutchery
• People pile up complaints about overbilling, obsolete power lines, unannounced load shedding

Minister of State for Water and Power Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali Wednesday suspended five SDOs and over a dozen meter readers on complaints of overbilling, failure to change obsolete power lines, transformers theft and unannounced load shedding.

The minister of state issued the order during an open kutchery at Punjab House where people filed a pile of complaints against Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (IESCO) over its failure to address the grievances of the consumers.

The kutchery was held on the instructions of Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif and attended by PML-N local leaders including Malik Abrar, Shakil Awan, Chaudhry Sarfraz and IESCO Chief Executive Malik Yusuf Awan and senior officials.

A large number of people turned up to avail the opportunity and expressed their resentment over the behaviour of officials of the utility. They complained that the IESCO staff right from meter reader to complaint attendants never attend their complaints.  Whenever the power is switched off, telephone of the complaint centres is deliberately kept busy to avoid attending the complaints.

One citizen, Malik Azam, complained that his request was not addressed regarding overbilling and on failure to give a satisfactory reply, the Minister of State suspended Revenue Officer Bashir and ordered an inquiry against him. He asked him to apologise to the senior citizen over his misbehaviour.

The minister of state took notice of theft of a transformer from Dhamyal area and ordered action against the concerned SDO.

A woman from Telagang complained that a private telephone company was not making her payment and Abid Sher Ali directed the concerned officials to resolve her problem.

Another citizen said that the bill provided to him says use of only four units of electricity while the bill demands Rs 4000.

Yet another citizen from Tarlai Munir Masih said he received October Bill for 200 units while for December the bill mentioned the use of 4080 units demanding payment of Rs 146,000. He said he was living in a five-marla house and cannot use such a big amount of power units.

Another citizen from Rawat said he won the overbilling case from the court as he was sent a wrong bill of Rs 8 million. He said the SDO is refusing to settle his case and demanding favour in cash. On this the minister of state directed a strict action against the SDO.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister of state said that so far action has been taken against 62 corrupt officers.  He gave strict orders for addressing the complaints about power theft and over billing.  He directed officers to listen public complaints on daily basis from 9 to 11 am.