DASKA - Hundreds of consumers including women and children held a protest demonstration and staged a sit-in besides burning their inflated electricity bills in village Ghartal, Sambrial tehsil.
The protesters were chanting slogans against Gepco and demanded immediate rectification of their bills. They said the meter readers add hundreds of unconsumed and excessive units in their bills.
On the occasion, Tariq Mahmood Mayo, a consumer, said that Gepco's Daska Subdivision officials had been issuing inflated bills for the last three months as each bill carried more than 500 excessive units. He said that the majority of the villagers are labourers and for correction in bills, they have to go to Daska after travelling more than 30 kilometers from the village. But the officials misbehave with them if they are found luckily in their offices, he added.
He said that the practice had now become unbearable for them, and threatened to besiege the Daska Grid Stations if the Gepco does not stop issuing inflated bills to them. The local notables including Tariq, Munawar, Khalil, Khushi Muhammad, Muhammad Hussain, Sadiq, Iftikhar Ali, Muhammad Ali. Sharif and Saeed also lodged a strong protest against the inflated bills.
On the other side, the local officials said that the bills included fuel adjustment surcharge and refused to make installments of the bills whereupon the consumers staged another protest in Daska.
Talking to the newsmen at his office, SDO Rana Muhammad Sadiq said that inflated bills were issued during the last month due to an error in Gepco Daska computer system, which had been rectified. He added that this month, no complaint of inflated bills had yet been lodged in his office.
In Vehari, residents of 7/WB protested against increasing incidents of animal theft incidents and demanded the DPO for action.
According to details many animal theft incidents took place in 7/WB in last few days and residents have bee deprived of animals of millions of worth.
The theft victims; Noor Sench Nawaz joya Jamil, Rao Tufique, Rana Azam, Rama Iqbal, Rao Salahodin, Rao Khurshid and Tahir Iqbal have demanded the DPO for the recovery of their animals and strict actions against the thieves.