‘Over 18,000 Kundas used to steal electricity in Mardan Circle’

PESHAWAR: There are an estimated 18,500 hooks, or kundas, put up by people to steal electricity in Mardan but efforts to curb the practice is slow due to the lack of support by the police to the Peshawar Electric Supply Company to cope with the problem, sources told The News.
The sources said hooks are widely used in the Mardan circle but certain areas area are notorious for the illegal practice. Officials of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) in Mardan approached the district judiciary after failing to get the required support from the police for taking action against those using the illegal hooks to directly draw electricity from the transmission lines. A large number of First Information Reports (FIRs) were subsequently filed against those illegally using electricity on the orders of the district and session judge. “We gave all the needed information to the police but they didn’t lodge the FIRs against the accused. We had no recourse but to seek the judiciary’s intervention for lodging the FIRs and taking punitive measures against those stealing electricity,” a Pesco official in Mardan said.
More than 1,100 FIRs had been filed since then and the over-burdened police began taking action against the electricity thieves in certain areas of Mardan. “The police raids in the company of Pesco officials have had an impact. Many people who had put up hooks were caught red-handed and fined. Others voluntarily removed the hooks and applied for installation of meters,” another Pesco official recalled.
According to officials, those in the habit of stealing electricity by using hooks mostly no longer do this during daytime. They said the hooks are installed mostly after 4 pm and used during the evening hours and at night when the use of electricity is at its peak. They conceded that in certain areas those stealing electricity come armed and confront the Pesco employees who are the field to remove the illegal hooks and book the culprits. They argued this was the reason the support of the cops is vital to tackle the problem of electricity theft.
The Pesco officials in Mardan maintained that the use of direct hooks to steal electricity caused overloading of the power distribution system and lead to breakdowns in the supply chain. They said the loyal Pesco customers who pay their bills and cannot even imagine stealing electricity suffer due to the illegal activities of those using hooks as the power distribution system breaks down after getting overloaded in their areas. Besides, they said there is more loadshedding in localities where line losses are high and electricity theft is common as part of the Pesco policy.
Consumers who regularly pay the bills and have never stolen electricity are at the receiving end as the Pesco policy to carry out loadshedding for longer duration on feeders with higher line losses and theft doesn’t differentiate between its loyal and disloyal customers. Consumers are unable to pinpoint the electricity thieves to the Pesco authorities as this could earn them the enmity of these people and result in grave consequences.
According to Pesco officials, another major issue facing Pesco are the old transmission lines in the Mardan circle. “Even if more electricity became available in the coming years, the existing transmission lines won’t be able to carry all the power,” one of the Pesco officials said. He said the transmission lines are many years old and needed to be replaced on an urgent basis.
The huge dimension of the problems facing Pesco in the Mardan circle could be gauged from the fact that the defaulters have to pay Rs255 million to Pesco. Though the Pesco authorities in Mardan managed to improve the recovery from 82 percent to 99 percent in the last two months, the culture of using hooks with impunity to steal electricity remains the biggest challenge. The government has to show greater resolve to tackle this challenge as action against the minority stealing electricity would benefit the majority of the people.