Mepco chief accuses parliamentarians

Aftab Ahmed

Islamabad: Chief Executive Officer, Multan Electric Power Company (MEPCO) Engineer Tarhir Mahmood on Friday accused the parliamentarian’s involvement in transfer, postings, and hiring of the Company’s staff.

He responded to a question relating to the dissatisfaction conveyed by Minister for Foreign Affairs, Shah Mehmood Quershi. Qureshi has presided over a meeting and conveyed the dissatisfaction with Mepco’s performance.

CEO MEPCOresponded that elected representatives’ complaints were related to transfer and postings and to hire people on political grounds.

He commented during a public hearing on excessive load shedding and overbilling by Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) and Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco). The hearing was conducted by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority and presided over by Chairman Tauseef Siddiqui, and attended by all four members.

Both companies ruled out unannounced load shedding and overbilling in their areas and claimed load shedding on high loss feeders under the government’s approved policy.

https://newztodays.com/nepra-takes-notice-of-excessive-bills-unscheduled-load-shedding-by-ke/

Chief Executive Officer, Mepco, Engineer Tarhir Mahmood, said was no forced load shedding in the company’s jurisdiction. Those points like the Yousafwala grid ( 32 grid stations) where transformers are overloaded and 220 grid stations at Bahawalpur face constraints.

He said that forced load-shedding was being done on these two points following the directions of NTDC. He also informed about another issue existing in Vehari related to NTDC.

Responding to a question, he said, Multan is also load shedding free, but in areas where a transformer is damaged, load shedding is done. However, some participants challenged the claims of CEO Mepco.

Chief Executive Office Lesco Mujahid Chattha said that consumers receiving deduction bills claimed it an overbilling.

Responding to a question regarding less drawn electricity than allocation quota, CEO, Chattha claimed that losses had reduced losses from 13.5 percent to 12.4 percent.

He also denied forced load shedding in Lesco’s area and said that electricity is switched off for some time to repair a local fault or if some damage is done due to hailstorm, which is believed to be load shedding by the people.