Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) charged 304 power pilferers with detection bill of 711,109 units worth Rs 30,205,018 during ninth day of grand anti-power theft operation in all its circles on Friday.
LESCO Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Engineer Shahid Haider termed the electricity thieves as enemies of national exchequer and deserved no mercy.
Following instructions of the Prime Minister and Ministry of Energy, a grand anti-power theft operation is continued in LESCO region under the supervision of CEO Shahid Haider for the last nine days.
Sharing details of the ninth day operation, the LESCO spokesperson confirmed that 304 connections in all circles were found involved in electricity theft and applications for FIRs against all electricity thieves have been filed in the respective police stations, out of which 149 FIRs have been registered, while 20 suspects have also been arrested.
He added that among the connections seized were one industrial, five agricultural, 12 commercial and 286 domestic and all the connections have been disconnected and charged with detection bill of 711,109 units worth Rs 30,205,018.
He explained that in Ganda Singh area, a lawyer Ghulam Mustafa was stealing electricity from direct supply and using it for agricultural purposes, the accused has been charged 19,490 units, the value of which is Rs 487,250 in terms of detection bill. In the same area of Ganda Singh, another customer was charged 21,760 units worth Rs. 544,250 as detection bill for stealing electricity from direct Supply in Shahdin Village. An accused Muhammad Zafar Advocate was charged with 22,360 units worth Rs 559,000 as detection bill.In the area of Bilawal Colony sub-division, the accused Basharat was stealing electricity from the direct supply and using it for agricultural purposes and he was charged 48,327 units of Rs 1.014 million under the detection bill.
The same accused was also charged 43800 units worth Rs 919,800 as detection bill for stealing electricity at another place. An electricity thief namely Pervez Iqbal was charged detection bills of 45,625 units worth Rs. 958,125 and 43,800 units worth Rs. 919,800 for stealing electricity at two different places including from a domestic connection. Talib Hussain, accused of stealing electricity by tampering with the industrial meter in Hujra Shah Moqeem, has been charged 16,000 units of Rs. 650,000 as a detection bill, he maintained.It should be noted that operations against electricity thieves are being conducted as per the instructions given by the Federal Power Division and Chief Executive Engineer Shahid Haider is personally supervising these operations.
LESCO chief says that the grand operation would continue without discrimination until the complete end of electricity theft. During the operation, the electricity thieves as well as the LESCO officers and employees who conniving them would be brought to justice.
