Consumers forced to pay for repair of transformers

Barkatullah Marwat

LAKKI MARWAT: Consumers in most areas in Lakki Marwat district were being forced to pay for the repair of out-of-order electricity transformers.

During a visit to Mash Habibullah and Jogi Wanda villages, the residents expressed concern over the apathetic attitude of the local authorities of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) for not repairing the defective transformers.

Talking to The News, the elders of Mash Habibullah village including Gul Tiaz, Delawar Khan, Sabz Ali Khan, Jan Amir, Habibullah and Abaz Ali Khan said their village had 300 houses and they were paying their utility bills regularly.

They said they had been paying for the repair of the lone electricity transformer of 100 KV installed in their village. “We collect Rs8000 to 10,000 when the transformer develops a fault to carry out repairs,” Habibullah said.

He said most villagers were poor and unable to pay the amount and the rich villagers had to pay more to foot the bill. They said the village elders visited the office of the Pesco Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) to request for the repairs of the faulty transformer that had been out of order for the last week but to no avail.

In reply to a question, the elders said the villagers had been paying their electricity bills and there was no question of power theft in the village. Village elder Abaz Ali Khan asked for how long they would have to pay for the repair of the transformer out of our own pockets.

When the office of Pesco’s Executive Engineer in Lakki Marwat was contacted, someone introducing himself as Waheed Khan said that none of the consumers had visited the office for registering complaint.

“Pesco cannot afford to repair the faulty transformers in the villages anymore,” he said, adding that the consumers were nowadays collecting money for the repair of the transformers. He said the village transformer was overloaded as it was supplying to 300 consumers. He felt a transformer could properly meet the needs of 100 houses only.

When the issue was brought into the notice of the provincial Director Public Relations for Pesco, Shaukat Afzal, he said: “Kindly check with the villagers as they are entitled to get the repair of the transformer through the Pesco if they pay monthly bills regularly.”

Email: bumarwat@gmail.com