HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) has dismissed claims of representatives of the organisations of industrialists, small traders and builders leveled against the power utility at a recent press conference.
Mohammad Sadiq Kubar, spokesman for Hesco, said in a rejoinder that being a public utility company, Hesco was obliged to ensure best possible service to all its consumers.
The industrialists of Kotri, Hyderabad and Jamshoro industrial areas had threatened at the press conference on Wednesday to close down industries if Hesco did not improve its service. ‘We always believe consumers are our first priority,’ he said.
He said that Jamshoro Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) president Yasir Malik had met Hesco’s Chief Operating Officer along with his team on July 29 and instructions were communicated to the field officers concerned the very same day based upon the delegation’s agenda points.
He said that civil works at the second grid station in Kotri had already beeninitiated. Hesco was carrying out loadmanagement as per schedule and shutdown, maintenance and development works on distribution networks, likv feeders and 132kv circuits after prior and proper issuance of handouts to all media sources, he said.
He maintained that in case of emergency due to monsoon season, various feeders were shut down over safety concerns. These points were duly discussed and communicated to the JCCI delegation, he said.
The JCCI president clarified that the industrialists’ meeting was scheduled only after 10 days of persuasion and that too was chaired by COO and not the CEO, who excused himself at the lith hour. If civil works had been started in the grid station, Hesco should have shown some evidence of it, he said.
He said that Hesco’s shutdowns continuedforseveralhoursevenonthepretext of removing a minor fault in an industrial area. The points raised by JCCI and other representatives were not given serious thought by Hesco, he lamented.
He said that COO admitted in the meeting that there was shortage of staff and it would take around two to three months to overcome the shortage, if he spoke the truth.