Hundreds of farmers staged a demonstration against
overbilling and high tariff in front of the Multan Electric Power Company
Headquarters here on Monday.
The protesting farmers led by Pakistan Kisan Ittehad
chairman Ch Anwar blocked the Khanewal Road by parking their tractor-trolleys.
They also tried to besiege the Mepco Headquarters but a heavy contingent of
police foiled their attempt. The protesters said that the Mepco had allegedly
sent them inflated tubewell bills, which they were unable to pay.
They alleged that the Mepco officers did not rectify the
bills according to a government’s commitment made in a meeting with the PKI
leaders. They further alleged that the Mepco had started disconnecting
connections of tube-wells instead of following the government commitment.
They said that the agriculture sector was badly hit by
loadshedding, but the situation became worse when the Mepco issued inflated
tubewell bills to them. They said that the agriculture power tariff had crushed
the small farmers. Unstable prices of agriculture commodities were also
affecting the small famers.
Speaking on the occasion, PKI Chairman Chaudhry Anwar
demanded implementation of tariff agreement finalised between the government
and the PKI. He alleged that the government had disconnected the power supply
to tubewells due to non-payment of the inflated bills.
He said the overbilling issue was not only restricted to the
Mepco but all power distribution companies did the same practice to increase
their revenue and cover lines losses. He said that the Mepco had installed the
SIM metering system with the cooperation of the USAID, but it failed to stop
overbilling.
Source: The News
No comments:
Post a Comment