The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco), Brigadier Shahbaz Azam, has suspended the entire staff of G-9 complaint office for negligence in redressing public complaints.
He issued suspension orders during his surprise inspection of the complaint office in G-9 here on Tuesday where he also heard complaints of customers. He also visited many streets in the sector and discussed performance of Iesco with the people.
According to a statement issued by Iesco spokesman, the staff of complaint office comprising 4 employees, Muhammad Haleem, telephone attendant, Madaar Khan lineman (LM), Shah Hussain (LM-I) and Binyameen line superintendent (LS-I) have been suspended for not attending and not registering customers' complaints which is tantamount to negligence in professional duties.
However, the suspended employees of the Distribution Company contended that due to recent heavy rains the phone of the complaint centre was dead for more than one hour, which hindered their performance.
The Chief Executive ordered installation of another telephone line for G-9 Complaint Office and Customer Services Centre and increased working hours to facilitate customers. Now the Customer Services Centre G-9 shall work as complaint office 24 hours instead of closing at 3 pm.
Superintendent Engineer (SE) Islamabad Circle Muhammad Qasim Khan briefed the Chief Executive of Iesco about the 16 hours power failure in G-9 and said that at 1.30 am both feeders, which supply electricity to G-9, broke down due to heavy rain late on last Saturday night.
One of these feeders is underground while the other is overhead and passes through the thick forest.
Despite the rain and darkness, Iesco technical staff worked in emergency for the restoration of electricity all night under the supervision of their XEN & SDO but unfortunately on that night more than 25 transformers which feed more that 16 streets broke down; therefore the restoration took a long time and breakdown lasted for about 16 hours.
Brigadier Ahmed was further informed that the interruption of electricity during the period was a solid proof that the staff of Iesco was on duty in bad weather and in the most critical circumstances.