Rs1m recovered from 370 defaulters

LAHORE:Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) in collaboration with Tehsildars (Recovery) has recovered Rs1 million from 370 dead defaulters in all the five districts - Lahore, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib, Kasur and Okara - on the 51st day of its recovery campaign.

Lesco spokesman told media here Friday that on the 51st day, 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 Rs1.39 million from 51 defaulters in Northern Circle and Rs2.43 million from 54 defaulters in Eastern Circle respectively.

Similarly, Lesco Manager (Material Disposal) Engineer Anwar Watto along with Tehsildar Model Town Rana Arsal and Tehsildar Cant.

Sajjad Qureshi recovered Rs2.20 million from 34 defaulters in Central Circle and Rs0.15 million from 07 defaulters in South Circle, while Manager (Technical) Engineer M Farooq with the assistance of Tehsildar Nankana Sahib M Iqbal Rasheed and Tehsildar Sheikhupura M Aslam Gujjar recovered Rs0.71 million from 39 defaulters in Nankana Sahib Circle and Rs1.52 million from 53 defaulters in Sheikhupura Circle.

He added that Lesco Manager E&S (PMU) Engineer Abbas Ali in collaboration with Naib Tehsildar Kasur and Okara Mirza Zahid Baig recovered outstanding dues of Rs0.36 million from 35 defaulters in Okara Circle and Rs2.10 million from 97 defaulters in Kasur Circle.

Up till now during the recovery campaign, the Lesco with the help of Tehsildars (Recovery) recovered more than Rs1.12 billion from 34,981 dead defaulters in its all circles of operation.

He elaborated that Lesco recovered outstanding dues of Rs144.02 million from 4,624 defaulters in Northern Circle; Rs258.42 million from 4,195 defaulters in Eastern Circle; Rs163.00 million from 4,423 defaulters in Central Circle; Rs62.31 million from 1,861 defaulters in South Circle, Rs75.80 million from 3,178 defaulters in Nankana Sahib Circle; Rs163.02 million from 3,874 defaulters in Sheikhupura Circle; Rs72.26 million from 5,155 defaulters in Okara Circle and Rs188.25 million from 7,671 defaulters in Kasur Circle.

For the recovery campaign started on September 13, the Lahore Division’s Commissioner had assigned additional charge of Tehsildar Recovery (from Lesco defaulters) to relevant Tehsidars, while Lesco Chief Executive Officer Engineer Shahid Haider has also designated four senior officers to assist them in the dues recovery from defaulters.

Lesco Chief Executive Officer Engineer Shahid Haider said that the company is facing loss due to dead defaulters, and vowed to continue action against them.Meanwhile, Lesco has detected a total of 338 connections from where the customers were pilfering electricity in all its circles of five districts (Lahore, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib, Kasur and Okara) on the 56th day of grand anti-power theft campaign.

The Lesco spokesman told media here Friday that the company has also submitted FIR applications against 336 electricity thieves, out of which 223 FIRs have been registered in respective police stations, while 34 accused have been arrested.

Grand anti-power theft operations against electricity thieves are being conducted on the directives of the Federal Power Division and the Lesco Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Engineer Shahid Haider is supervising these operations.

The Lesco chief vowed that the operations would continue without discrimination until the complete end of electricity theft.The electricity pilferers as well as the Lesco officers and employees who facilitate them are also being brought to justice.

On the 56th consecutive day (Nov 3) of the anti-power theft campaign, the spokesman added, large commercial consumers were also found involved in electricity theft and all of them were also disconnected and charged with detection units.

Among the seized connections 13 were commercial, 05 agricultural, 03 industrial and 317 domestic, and all these connections were disconnected and charged with a total of 456,938 units as detection bill amounting to Rs19.956 million.

He explained that Lesco charged Rs1.5 million detection bill against 31,610 units to an electricity pilferer in Ganda Singh Wala area of Kasur; Rs210,000 fine in the form of detection bill against 3,600 units to a customer stealing electricity in Baghbanpura Lahore; Rs190,000 detection bill against 3,100 units to another power thief in Saddar areas, Kasur; and Rs190,000 detection bill against 3,000 units to a power thief in Aminpura Kasur.

During the 56 days of grand anti-theft campaign, the spokesman mentioned, the Lesco detected pilferage on 23,201 power connections and submitted 22,964 FIR applications against electricity thieves in the relevant police stations out of which 22,145 FIRs have been registered, while 11,574 accused have so far been arrested by the police.The Lesco has so far charged a total of 44,252,616 detection units worth Rs1,904,137,002 to all the power pilferers.