The Ministry of Water and Power has decided to supply uninterrupted power supply to domestic consumers on 9th and 10th of Muharram while suspending supply to the industrial and commercial consumers. Accordingly, an uninterrupted power supply would continue for domestic consumers, said PEPCO sources. They pointed out that power shortfall has crossed 5,000 megawatt per day in recent past, leading to an increase in power load shedding for domestic consumers.
Since the ministry had not withdrawn electricity load shedding over the last one year or so, therefore, power supply to the domestic consumers was compromised with reduction in power supply in the recent past. It has resulted into an increase of loadshedding both in urban and rural areas.
Talking to the Business Recorder, the domestic consumers have expressed satisfaction over uninterrupted power supply during Ashura. They said it was a big respite in a situation where the loadshedding hours were on the rise with every passing day amidst abnormally inflated bills for the months of August and September. Tanveer Ahmed, a resident of Gulshan Ravi, said majority of consumers in his neighbourhood had a strong impression that the DISCOs were shifting the burden of line losses and short recovery to them in the form of electricity bills.
Zahid Iqbal, another resident, further pointed out that the LESCO was sending him a presumptive bill by delaying to replace the faulty meter on the pretext that no new meter is yet available with it. Meanwhile, the LESCO sources have pointed out that the Company was delaying purchase of new meters by cancelling the tenders time and again. They said it was becoming difficult for them to deal with the mounting pressure of consumers demanding meters under new connections or replacement of the faulty ones. The meter manufacturers, on the other hand, have blamed the distribution companies for pressurising them to cut prices or pay bribery to get approval for the tenders.