KHAIRPUR: The people of Khairpur on Saturday strongly protested against the alleged atrocities of Sukkur Electric Power Company (SEPCO) that issued ‘illegal’ deduction bills to them since a long time. No governmental body ever took notice about their grievances. The people accused SEPCO’s corrupt staff for its involvement in malpractices and getting ‘monthly payment’ from hundreds of customers by threatening them that they would be issued deduction bills. Meanwhile, the SEPCO officials claimed increased power losses as a reason of power outages. “SEPCO staff installed electricity theft lines to loot millions of rupees from the consumers every month while regular bill-paying consumers suffer,” people claimed. The SEPCO consumers said that they were being issued deduction bills of Rs12,000 to Rs20,000 on air-conditioners (ACs) while consumers without ACs installed at their homes were being issued Rs3,000 to Rs12,000 monthly since March 2017. Often, the consumers visited SEPCO office for correction of their bills and ‘illegal’ deduction bills. Hundreds of complaints are still pending; however, the staff did not resolve their issues. The SEPCO officials either shoulder responsibility of the matter on each other or force them to pay 40 to 50 percent of the billing amount. The consumers further claim that 300,000 to 500,000 electric power units were being stolen monthly in the city of Khairpur and SEPCO staff including meter readers Hyder Ali Soomro, Hayat Shaikh, Shafi Muhammad Shaikh, SDOs, meter supervisors, revenue staff and others were involved to assist customers in electricity theft from the poles directly. A social activist Ghaffar Mahar said that nobody is sincere to resolve electricity bills issue; even courts have not taken any action SEPCO. He alleged that corrupt meter readers were taking bribe on monthly basis. Consumers further alleged that issuance of deduction bills and recording false meter reading falls under the jurisdiction of Article 9 of the constitution of 1973. Moreover, they said that SEPCO authorities appointed a line superintendent as SDO of sub division of Khairpur, who supervises all the ‘illegal’ activities. Lastly, they demanded the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) to take a suo motu notice of corruption committed by SEPCO authorities and probe fairly into the matter. Published in Daily Times, May 20th 2018.