People protest inflated power bills

LAHORE

After a brief respite, the ugly practice of issuing excessive power bills to consumers by Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) resurfaces to once again haunt powerless consumers. 

One such example was a protest organised by the residents of two localities of the city over the issue of undue electricity billing to domestic consumers.

Residents of Mustafa Town and Azam Garden staged a demonstration on Monday outside local office of power utility against what they called issuance of inflated power bills. 

Holding electricity bills in their hands, hapless masses including women gathered outside the office of Mustafa Town sub division. They were infuriated over absence of official concerned of the Lesco. They chanted slogans against Lesco while protesting on Wahdat Road. 

Agitated over undue practice of overbilling, a consumer, said he had been sent power bill to the tune of Rs 80,000 which is totally not corresponding to his electricity use.

People complained that the practice of printing clear pictures of their respective meters was also not being followed. They claimed that meter readings mentioned on their bills were arbitrarily posted wrongly.

On the other hand, a similar protest was held a few days back on the premises of Lesco by the locals of Rajajang Union Council of Kasur. The complainants were protesting against issuance of excessive bills, saying they were heavily charged in the utility bills despite no increase in their electricity use.

When contacted, Lesco spokesman was not available for comments on the issue. 

Meanwhile, unannounced loadshedding has also increased in rural and urban areas owing to reduction in power generation.

The downward trend in hydropower generation and thermal generation due to multiple factors has led to imbalance in demand and supply of electricity. Six to eight hours of outages in urban areas and 8-12 hours in rural areas are being done by the power utility.

PU workshop:  Punjab University Institute of Biochemistry & Biotechnology, in collaboration with Centre for Applied Molecular Biology, is organising a four-day national workshop on “Hands on Training on Real Time PCR, Protein Blotting and Cell Culturing Techniques in Pakistan” from October 18 to 21, 2016.

The inaugural ceremony will be held on Tuesday (today) at Institute of Biochemistry & Biotechnology (IBB) Auditorium.