News
Monday, May 30, 2011
Citizens say bribes asked for correcting power faults* KESC spokesman says the utility condemns such incidents, people advised to register such complaints at complaint offices
KARACHI: The enduring hardships facing Karachiites due to prolonged power outages have terribly got on their nerves as in some localities they have reportedly pay bribes for getting power faults corrected. Some KESC maintenance people have started extracting money from hapless power consumers in various areas for rectifying faults, citizens complain.
The denizens of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Block 13-D, Mosamiyaat, Nagan Chowrangi, Tariq Road, North Nazimabad Block-H, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Burns Road, Saddar say that in many cases KESC maintenance workers demanded money for repairing the power faults.
Being a public utility organisation, KESC workers were not entitled to recover money, overtly or covertly, from consumers in exchange of discharging their official responsibility.
Power outage stricken people say that they need electricity by whatever means. “If we get indulge in sparring with the KESC team over payment of money demanded by them for repairing a fault, it will ultimately make us suffer, so it’s better to have a deal with them,” said Shahid, 29, a resident of Gulshan-e-Iqbal.
Shahid added that riots erupted in the wake of prolonged power outages were also of no result, as the KESC teams refused to carry out swift repair operation in the tense areas.
Zain, 25, a resident of North Nazimabad, complained that KESC people persistently drag their feet when consumers asked them to visit and rectify the fault in their areas. He said a KESC team was called to correct a fault in the PMT. “Upon their arrival, they told the fault is major and it will take more than 24 hours to be corrected.” He said they hinted the fault could be repaired much earlier if Rs 7,000 were paid to them. He said after a long haggling Rs 5,000 was finally settled and the fault was corrected in 5 hours.
The KESC maintenance teams were making the most of this bleak situation in local areas on the cost of dejected consumers as the dearth of field workers was evident owing to the strike of Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA) union.
Similarly many people have castigated the complaint lodging mechanism of KESC, saying the line disconnection while filing a complaint was very frequent. In addition, they complained that different operators ask for different information that was equally perplexing.
KESC and CBA’s versions: Talking to PPI on telephone, a spokesman for KESC said the utility condemned such incidents and people were strongly advised to register such complaints at the complaint office of the KESC.
He doubted that those teams demanding bribes for rectifying power faults were genuine KESC workers. “Those demanding heavy bribes for repairing faults could be some CBA activists,” the spokesman charged.
When asked how the protesting CBA workers could have used the KESC machinery for rectifying a fault, he said ‘CBA hooligans’ were capable enough to dupe people.
He maintained that KESC was addressing complaints on regular basis, adding the major areas that were blanketed in darkness were looked upon first, and now the individual complaints were being addressed.
Regarding telephonic complaints, he said the consumers’ call volume was high for some days, adding average 15,000 to 20,000 complaints were reported on daily basis prior to the CBA protest.
A CBA representative at the protest camp outside the Karachi Press club, however, categorically rejected the KESC claims for fleecing people. “You know we have been protesting for more than three weeks at the Press Club and not attending our duties. In such a case, hostile KESC management must refrain from casting repeated allegations on us and must focus on addressing the rampant power outage menace,” he said.
The union representative said utility’s management was continuously defaming the protesting workers under different pretexts, adding the people of Karachi were well aware of the KESC performance and wanting it to be renationalised. ppi
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk