NAUDERO: Sukkur Electric Power Company (SEPCO) on Sunday suspended power supply to five electricity distribution feeders for 16 hours despite the presence of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Faryal Talpur in the district.
Reportedly, SEPCO sub-division officer (SDO) Sajad Memon and other officials turned off their mobile phones and did not respond to customers’ complaints.
After light rain around midnight, the grid station in-charge Suhail Lashari halted power supply to the entire town and its adjoining areas till Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, when the residents approached SEPCO office, the staff replied that they were searching for faults in the transmission lines.
The SEPCO lineman Yasin Lashari, a junior employee, has been recently appointed as the line superintendent of City Feeder-1 in gross violation of directives of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP).
Consequently, the SEPCO staff failed to detect faults and when they arrived at Garibabad to fix a pole-mounted transformer and delink 11,000 KV transmission line, a clash erupted between residents of the area and SEPCO staff
Subsequently, they returned back without fixing the issue, and demanded to lodge case against consumers, who were responsible for the clash.
Contrarily, consumers alleged that SEPCO officials have been taking ‘bribe’ from every resident of the area while depriving them of electricity in the scorching heat of summer.
“Against the scheduled load-shedding of 8 hours, the SEPCO officials have been suspending power for 12 hours daily,” the consumers said while accusing them of committing corruption in the department.
They claimed that they had been supporting PPP, but if power crisis is not resolved as soon as possible, they would not cast votes to PPP candidates in the upcoming general elections 2018.
“SEPCO has committed massive corruption, and to balance the amount, they have been pressurising the consumers to pay them in the form of ‘bribe’,” the consumers further alleged.
Moreover, they warned SEPCO officials to halt their highhandedness, otherwise they would launch protests to secure their fundamental right and approach the court of law, respectively.
They said that ‘illegal’ electricity deduction bills were being issued ‘intentionally’ to every meter holder.
They demanded an immediate removal of Yasin Lashari from his post and appealed to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and other investigation agencies to probe the matter and investigate the assets of SEPCO officials.
Published in Daily Times, June 11th 2018.