The electricity supply to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) offices could not be restored on the second consecutive day on Tuesday after the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) had suspended the power supply to several government departments including the CDA the other day. An IESCO official said the CDA owed Rs 13.45 million to the IESCO and that the authority was one of the biggest defaulters in the region. He said since the CDA could not pay the total amount in one instalment, the IESCO had no option but to cut their supply.
He further said the IESCO had served many notices on the CDA for payment of the dues. “An advertisement in national dailies was also published to warn all defaulters to pay their outstanding dues,” the official added. In the recent past, both the authorities of CDA and IESCO had adopted different ways of hostility towards each other. Initially, the IESCO cut power supply to the main the CDA headquarters after which the civic body declared 30 buildings and installations of the IESCO illegal. IESCO’s spokesman Farooq Ahmad said that most of the offices which the CDA pointed out as illegal did not come under the IESCO’s jurisdiction.
“All these offices including Rawal Rest are not actually the IESCO offices, so why the CDA is issuing uncalled for notices to us” he said, adding that most of the offices were owned by the WAPDA. However, the power suspension continued to perturb the employees working in the directorates of CDA on Tuesday. “Most of the work has come to a halt as it is difficult to do anything without electricity,” said an employee. He alleged that apathy of the CDA high-ups was further aggravating their problems. “Had the CDA paid the IESCO bills yesterday, the power supply would have been restored today,” he said. Senior officers were also found whiling away their time out of their offices on Tuesday.
