PESHAWAR, Sep 12 (APP): The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has decided stern action against the influential mafia involved in the illegal use of electricity and Kunda culture on Tuesday.
In this connection, lists of various factories, hotels, commercial plazas, wedding halls, shopping malls, shops, and illegal housing societies allegedly involved in electricity theft have also been prepared and a large-scale crackdown against them will be launched soon.
A decision in this regard was taken in the maiden meeting of the Provincial Task Force constituted by the provincial government for the purpose. The Task Force headed by the Secretary Home & Tribal Affairs is carrying out a campaign against the illegal use of electricity and recovery of dues from consumers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as per the priority of the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Besides, head of the task force, Secretary Home & Tribal Affairs Abid Majeed, Secretary Energy Zulfikar Ali Shah, Commissioner Peshawar Zubair Khan, Commissioner Malakand Shahid ullah Khan, Deputy Secretary Industry/Commerce Maqbool Khan, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) Fazal Rabi, Additional Secretary Power Division, Arshad Majeed Khan, Commissioners of various divisions, regional police officers and others attended the meeting.
The domestic consumers have also been warned to give up the Kunda culture with immediate effect, otherwise, stern action will be taken against them under the framework of the law. The defaulters of electricity bills should also cooperate and pay their arrears early so that the country can be brought out of the current crisis.
The participants of the meeting were told that since September 5, 2023, a total of 518 raids have been conducted across the province, and 925 direct connections using illegal electricity were removed.
684 cases of power theft have been registered with different police stations while 28 people were arrested and warnings were issued to 338 consumers. An amount of Rs. 4 million has been recovered from defaulters during the last one week.
According to the CEO PESCO, there are Rs. 190 billion dues are outstanding against defaulters and teams have been constituted for their recovery.
Additional Secretary Power Division Arshad Majeed Khan expressed his dissatisfaction with the performance of PESCO and said that most of the electricity theft is registered in Mardan, Charsadda, Bannu, and Peshawar while the recovery targets are also slow.
In the meeting, the Divisional Commissioners and Regional Police Officers of Bannu, DI Khan, Kohat, Bannu, and Hazara informed about the measures taken for the recovery and prevention of electricity theft in their respective regions. In the meeting, emphasis was also made on using the campaign under the Whistle Blower Act to make it successful.
In the meeting, Secretary Interior Abid Majeed, the head of the provincial task force, expressed his annoyance at the lack of a public awareness campaign and weak communication by PESCO during the prevention and recovery campaign against the illegal use of electricity.
He directed the PESCO chief to display banners at visible spots in streets, Mohallas, and bazaars for the purpose and directed to start an awareness campaign on TV channels and newspapers. He emphasized on taking stern action against power theft in illegal housing societies including posh areas of the province.
He directed the deputy commissioners, assistant commissioners, and police officials of the province who are included in the task force committees at district and tehsil levels to share data of the crackdown against power pilferers on a daily basis to PMRU (Performance Management and Reforms Unit), which is monitoring the operation.
