The Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) has made significant progress in its anti-power theft campaign, detecting 407 illegal connections in a single day. The company has also filed FIRs against 405 individuals involved in electricity theft, and 43 suspects have been arrested.
While talking to media the LESCO’s spokespersons said that the crackdown was being carried out under the directives of the Federal Power Division, with LESCO’s Chief Executive Officer, Engineer ShahidHaider, personally overseeing the operations. Haider has vowed to continue these operations until electricity theft is completely eradicated.
LESCO is targeting not only the culprits who steal electricity but also those employees and officers within the company who facilitate such theft.
On the 31st consecutive day of the anti-power theft campaign, it was revealed that even large agricultural and commercial consumers were implicated in these illicit activities. LESCO promptly disconnected all these connections, subjecting them to detection units and substantial penalties.
LESCO has also imposed hefty fines on electricity pilferers. For example, a customer on Davis Road Lahore was charged Rs 4.928 million for 88,000 units, while another customer in Saleem Garden area of Shahdara was fined Rs 1.1 million for 13,825 units.
During the 31-day duration of the anti-theft campaign, LESCO has detected pilferage on 14,690 power connections and filed FIRs against 14,556 individuals. The police have arrested 4,791 accused individuals thus far, and LESCO has charged a total of 30,985,410 detection units worth Rs 1,373,010,597 billion.
