Lesco detects11,578 illegal connections

LAHORE: The Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) has got an FIR registered against Rukhsana Kausar, former MPA of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, after founding her stealing electricity by illegally hooking a wire to a light transmission line in the Davis Road Sub-Division.

The company spokesman told media here on Monday the Lesco staff seized the wires used in electricity theft and got a case registered against the accused in the related police station. The police, he added, tried to arrest her, but she escaped. The Lesco also charged her with Rs 575,000 detection units, out of which Rs 150,000 have been recovered. However, Rukhsana has put blame of power theft on her tenant, saying that she had rented out her house. Talking to The News, she claimed that the tenant was hiding. The connection was in her name, hence the FIR was registered against her.

The Lesco spokesman said the company detected 11,578 connections from where people were pilfering electricity in all its circles of five districts Lahore, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib, Kasur and Okara during the 25 days of a grand anti-power theft campaign. The company has so far submitted FIR applications against 11,478 electricity thieves, out of which 10,505 FIRs have been registered in police stations, while 3,484 accused have been arrested. The spokesman said electricity thieves had been charged so far with 24,250,725 detection units amounting to Rs 1,096,413,102. Anti-power theft operations are being conducted on the directives of the Federal Power Division and Lesco Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Engineer Shahid Haider is supervising them. The Lesco chief has vowed that the operations will continue without discrimination until end of electricity theft. Electricity pilferers and Lesco employees who facilitate them are also being brought to justice.

On the 25th consecutive day (October 2) of the anti-power theft campaign, the spokesman added, the Lesco found 588 connections involved in electricity theft and submitted FIR applications against 585 electricity thieves, out of which 258 FIRs had been registered while 122 accused had been arrested. Large agricultural and commercial consumers were also found involved in electricity theft and all of them were charged with detection units. Among the seized connections, 17 were commercial, one agricultural and 570 domestic, and all these connections were disconnected and charged with 877,396 units as detection bill amounting to Rs 46,754,908.

The company charged 2,496 detection units worth Rs 1 million in Gujarpura; 8,500 detection units worth Rs 500,000 in Saidan Shah, 7,446 detection units worth Rs 3,547,408 in Bahria Town and 6,789 detection units worth Rs 355,872 in Sundar. The company has recovered Rs 12m from 319 defaulters. In collaboration with Tehsildars (Recovery), it has recovered Rs 12 million from 319 dead defaulters. Chief Engineer O&M (T&G) Zafar Iqbal with the support of Tehsildar City Mujahid Zia and Tehsildar Shalimar Noreez Humayun recovered outstanding dues of Rs 1.39 million from 40 defaulters in Northern Circle and Rs 5.56 million from 50 defaulters in Eastern Circle. Similarly, Lesco Manager (Material Disposal) Engineer Anwar Wattoo along with Tehsildar Model Town Rana Arsal and Tehsildar Cant Sajjad Qureshi recovered Rs 1.17 million from 38 defaulters in Central Circle and Rs 260,000 from seven defaulters in South Circle, while Manager (Technical) Engineer Muhammad Farooq with the assistance of Tehsildar Nankana Sahib Iqbal Rasheed and Tehsildar Sheikhupura Aslam Gujjar recovered Rs 860,000 from 40 defaulters in Nankana Circle and Rs 960,000 from 27 defaulters in Sheikhupura Circle.

Lesco Manager E&S (PMU) Engineer Abbas Ali in collaboration with Naib Tehsildar Kasur and Okara Mirza Zahid Baig recovered outstanding dues of Rs 790,000 from 63 defaulters in Okara Circle and Rs 1.15 million from 54 defaulters in Kasur Circle.

During the recovery campaign, Lesco staffers with the help of Tehsildars (Recovery) recovered more than Rs 555 million from 16,261 dead defaulters in all circles of operation. The company recovered outstanding dues of Rs 64.54 million from 1,791 defaulters in Northern Circle, Rs 136.69 million from 1,913 defaulters in Eastern Circle, Rs 79.28 million from 2,059 defaulters in Central Circle, Rs 36.33 million from 1,071 defaulters in South Circle, Rs 34.87 million from 1,291 defaulters in Nankana Circle, Rs 73.10 million from 1,518 defaulters in Sheikhupura Circle, Rs 36.26 million from 2,456 defaulters in Okara Circle and Rs 93.98 million from 4,162 defaulters in Kasur Circle.