Faulty meters in Lesco region exceed 120,000

LAHORE:The number of single-phase faulty meters in Lesco region has crossed 120,000 and the people are facing problems in timely replacement of faulty meters in various areas of the provincial metropolis.

According to Lesco sources, thousands of faulty meters could not be replaced for the last four months while consumers are facing multiple problems in payments of bills for faulty meters.

When contacted the Lesco local administration said that they could not replace faulty meters due to severe shortage of meters. It is worth mentioning here that Lesco Chief Executive Shahid Haider in a recent statement said that the company has borrowed 20,000 single-phase meters from the Gujranwala Electric Power Company (GEPCO) to overcome the meter shortage.

The measure was taken to temporarily overcome the shortage at Lesco and resolve the issues being faced by the people while getting new electricity connections. However, the matter would be resolved shortly, he said.

It is worth mentioning here that Lesco is the country’s largest power distribution company in terms of power consumption and number of consumers, the company is all set to float tenders in the next couple of days for the procurement of 750,000 single-phase meters, he said.

He said that due to the shortage of meters, people have been facing delays in getting new connections and that is why we have temporarily arranged around 20,000 meters by borrowing them from Gepco. In personal stock, we have around 11,000 meters, Shahid Haidar further said.

401 power pilferers detected

Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco), during its anti-power theft campaign, has detected a total of 401 connections from where the customers were pilfering electricity in all its circles of five districts (Lahore, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib, Kasur and Okara) in the last 24 hour.

The Lesco spokesman told media here Monday that the company has also submitted FIR applications against electricity thieves, out of which 118 FIRs have been registered in respective police stations, while 19 accused have been arrested by the respective police.

Grand anti-power theft operations against electricity thieves are being conducted on the directives of the Federal Power Division and the Lesco 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.

During last 24 hours of the anti-power theft campaign, the spokesman added, large commercial consumers were found involved in electricity theft.