Civic bodies face power disconnection

Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA), Rawalpindi and Chaklala Cantonment Boards and Water and Sewerage Agency (Wasa) and three other government organisations would face power disconnection over Rs 671.187 million default as IESCO has decided to disconnect the power supply of all defaulters of more than Rs 100,000.
The Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (IESCO) the power distribution company of Wapda has served notices to all the defaulters to deposit bills till December 31, failing in which they would face disconnection of power supply.
Sources in IESCO told this scribe that various government, semi-government and private organisations are defaulters and millions of rupees are outstanding with these organisations. There will be no compromise with these organisations and power supply would be disconnected on January 1, they said.
They said that important departments and civic bodies of Rawalpindi who were served notices for depositing outstanding amount of electricity charges have a default of Rs 671.187. These organisations including GE Services Rawalpindi having a default of Rs 346.087 million following by Rawalpindi Cantonment Board Rs 153.164 million, Chaklala Cantonment Board Rs 125.243 million, Tehsil Municipal Administration Rs 35.967 million, Punjab Police Rs 4.637, Water and Sewerage Agency Rs 2.269 million, Punjab Transport System Rs 2.187 million and District Health Department Rs 1.715 million.
They said that there are various big defaulters of IESCO in Islamabad including Capital Development Authority Rs 68.817 million followed by Public Works Department Rs 45.652 million, Pak Secretariat Rs 18.889 million, FG Services Hospital Rs 17.203 million, Islamabad Capital Police Rs 16.461 million, Ministry of Haj and Auqaf Rs 6.996 million, Ministry of Railways Rs 6.570 million, Ministry of Education Rs 5.823 million, Balochistan House Rs 3.009 million, Ministry of Health Rs 2.118 million, Chief Commissioner Office Rs 1.956 million, Ministry of Kashmir Affairs Rs 1.931 million, Income Tax Department Rs 1.266 million.
They said that all these defaulter departments and organisation have been asked to deposit the defaulted amount before December 31.
It may recall that there is rift between Rawalpindi Cantonment Board and Wapda over outstanding bills for a long time as RCB is claiming the amount as tax of the installation of the Wapda in its jurisdiction. This tussle between two organisations is existing for a long time but not resolved yet. Tehsil Municipal Administration has faced power disconnection by IESCO few months back and after depositing bills the power supply was restored after more than 15 days.