PESHAWAR: Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) would soon suspend supply of electricity to 11 feeders in seven districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, he said that power theft was high and recovery of dues was low in those areas. He that since his last visit in January, it was noticed that out of 80 feeders of Pesco, line losses and cases of power theft had increased in the areas covered by 30 feeders. “That’s why some feeders will be closed today,” he added.
Flanked by Pesco chief Tariq Sadozai, the minister said that almost 96 per cent line losses from 11 feeders in Warsak-I, Mathra, Domail, Palosai, Islmailkhel, Bisham, Tank, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan and Karak forced the power supply company to suspend supply of electricity to those.
“Maintenance of law and order is the responsibility of the provincial government,” Mr Ali said when asked what would be done if law and order situation was created after suspension of power supply to those areas.
He said that there were 1,252 consumers in Warsak-1 Colony but none of them paid the electricity bill. “There is 100 per cent power theft in the area with around Rs726 outstanding dues,” he said.
The minister said that they were going to stop power theft and suspend power supply to such consumers. “Believe me we are not doing it due to prejudice against this province. This impression is wrong,” he said.
Mr Ali read out from a list the names of the feeders, defaulters and outstanding dues against them. He said that out of a total of 1,718 power consumers in Bisham, only 34 were paying bills. The power company faced almost Rs48 million financial losses, he added.
Similarly, in Sabir Baba area of Tank district, out of a total of 3,800 consumers, only 227 paid bills, showing a total outstanding receivable amount of Rs153 million. In Kaulchi sub-division, he said, there were more than 3,422 power consumers but only 455 of them paid bills. The total receivable amount in the area was Rs95 million, he added.
The minister said that there were more than 2,489 consumers in Jhandokhel but only 125 of them were depositing electricity bills. The total receivable amount in the area nearly Rs173 million, showing line losses of 95.4 per cent, he added.
Likewise, he said, in Tajzai area in Lakki Marwat there were 2,232 consumers and 1,870 of them were using electricity illegally. The outstanding dues in the area stood at Rs105 million, he added. He said that there were around 4,774 power consumers in Karak sub-division and only 437 of them paid bill whereas 3,936 used electricity illegally.
In Bannu district rural II area, the minister said, total consumers were around 4,386 but only 400 of them were paying electricity bills. The outstanding dues in the area were Rs143 million, he added.
Mr Ali said that in New Mathra out of 2,031 power consumers only 81 deposited electricity bills and receivable amount in the area was around Rs310 million.
The minister said that federal government provided Rs4 billion to Pesco to upgrade and improve power transmission lines and replace outdated electricity wires and transformers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“Pesco has managed to save Rs1.3 billion within one month,” he said, adding that since his last visit in January this year there was almost seven per cent improvement as around Rs790 million were received or recovered by Pesco.
Despite the recovery of a huge amount, Mr Ali said, they were not satisfied with it. He said that they tasked Pesco to further improve and minimise the line losses. The ratio of power theft was also increased in the province, he added.
Without naming any minister and lawmaker, Mr Ali showed a CD saying it was a proof of how some of the ministers in the province manhandled and harassed the workers and officials of Pesco.
Regarding the tackling with the current energy crisis and production of electricity on subsidised rates of power, the minister said that the government was focussing to generate electricity from coal. Jamshro coal-power project was initiated to generated 260 megawatts electricity while Budo power plant of coal would also produce 741 megawatts electricity, the minister said.
Similarly, he said, they were also taking steps to generate solar power while a project was initiated to generate 300 megawatts electricity. Under the fast-track strategy, he said, around 1,500 to 1,765 megawatts electricity would be added to national power grid system by June this year.
To a query about construction of Kalabagh dam, the minister said that first consensus among all federating units should be developed. He said that some of the feeders with high line losses would be outsourced but at the moment they were only planning to bring improvement in the power supply system.