SHANGLA: Peshawar Electric Supply Company’s general manager operation Khalid Hussain Lara has urged the consumers of Shangla, Kohistan, Torghar, and Battagram to pay their arrears and save the province sole company from further loss.
Pesco’s GM operation was addressing a meeting with the stakeholders of Bisham and Kohistan here at the sub-divisional office, Bisham on Sunday. Superintendent Engineer Pesco Swat Khalid Khan and Executive engineer Swat circle II, Rehmat Elahi, SDO Bisham, Muhammad Shakeel, and Rehmat Wali were also present on the occasion, while elders of Bisham tehsil and Kohistan areas were in attendants.
The local people pointed out their issues related to the electricity and urged the Pesco’s senior officials to solve the issues.
Ikram Shah, a local notable said that they spend a huge amount on taking faulty transformers to Chakdara for repair for which they collect the required amount.
“Due to shortage of staff at the Bisham sub-division and six district consumers the proper and uninterpreted supply has not been ensured. We want to make the Bisham sub-division limited to Shangla Bisham, so that we can enjoy the electricity and our issues resolve instantly,” He recalled.
Ijaz Kamal, former tehsil councilor, Alpuri, highlighted the inflated bills, loadsheding, pending meters and delay in bills, also demanded a vehicle for transportation of transformers to repairing workshops.
He requested the GM Pesco to find an easy way for receiving the arrears from consumers also expedite the installation of new meters to those who applied for new connections.
General manager Pesco operation assured the stakeholders that Pesco was going to hired 4000 new staff next month and also more in the next phase to fill up the vacant posts in order to ensure uninterpreted power supply to consumers.
He said, a vehicle also be provided to Pesco’s Bisham sub-division very soon and the transformer of Bisham city would also be isolated from the other areas where more consumers are defaulters.
“We have dispatched the pending amount case of Rs 63 billion of Earthquake 2005 to the parliament to end the issue. People should at least pay their current bills for saving the KP’s sole electric company from bankruptcy,” The Pesco’s GM, told the meeting.
He said, the Pesco’s Bisham sub-division to be also isolated from Hazara division’s parts to make it limited to Shangla.
He assured the meeting participants that he would provide the pending materials including new meters till July, 05 next month and he would ask the billing department to expedite the new bills issuance process.
He said that he had been asked to SDOs and other staff to receive minimum payment from consumers in installments so that the poor consumers can pay their bills.
He added that Rs 500 in each month were being deducted from the consumers as coronavirus relief, however, it was not that complete bills would be relaxed.
