LAHORE: The Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) on Tuesday disconnected power supply to a number of Water and Sanitation Agency`s tube wells, disposal stations and other operations-related premises for defaulting on huge bills/dues amounting to nearly Rs6 billion.

The power supply was disconnected after Wasa failed to clear the bills despite several reminders from Lesco.

`We will not restore power supply till receipt of bills,` Lesco Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Shahid Haidar said in a statement.

`We issued several reminders to Wasa to pay bills amounting to Rs5.9bn,` he maintained.

According to an official source in Lesco, there were a total 1,262 Wasa connections, including nearly over 600 tube wells connections. Of these, the official, who requested anonymity, said Leswo disconnected 203 that caused immense disruption related to water and supply and wastewater disposal.

`The Lesco management has also received calls from top authorities for restoring power supply. Let`s see what happens,` he maintained.

On the other hand, the power supply suspension caused serious issues in various parts of the city as the Wasa field formations couldn`t switch the tube wells on.

`We have had no water in our area since afternoon. On inquiring, we came to know about non-operation of the tube wells in our area due to power supply sus-pension,` said a resident of Johar town while talking to Dawn.

`It is really disturbing,` he deplored.

When contacted, an official of Wasa told Dawn that the agency`s management was in contact with Lesco admin for restoration of power supply.

`Hopefully, we will settle the issue with Lesco soon,` he expressed hope.

THEFT: The Lesco teams on Tuesday detected another 434 connections from where the customers were pilfering electricity in all its circles of five districts of Lahore, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib, Kasur and Okara on the 154th day of grand anti-power theft campaign.

According to a Lesco spokesman, the company has also submitted FIR applications against electricity thieves, out of which 194 FIRs have been registered in respective police stations.

On the 154th consecutive day of the anti-power theft campaign, the spokesman added, large commercial consumers were also found involved in electricity theft and power supply to all of them was disconnected and they were charged with detection units.

Among the seized connections, 14 were commercial, two agricultural, one industrial and 417 domestic and all these connections were disconnected and charged with a total of 251,777 units as detection bill amounting to Rs7.4m.

Apprising the media about some major power pilferers, the spokesman explained that Lesco charged Rs180,000 detection bill to an electricity pilferer in the Garhi Shahu area; Rs150,000 detection bills to anotherpower pilferer in Green Town, Rs140,000 fine in the form of detection bills to customer stealing electricity in the Shahdara area of Lahore; and Rs124,000 detection bill to a power thief in the Manawan area.

During the 154 days of the grand antitheft campaign, the spokesman mentioned, Lesco detected pilferage on 52,856 power connections and 48,534 FIRs have been registered against electricity thieves in the relevant police stations while 17,524 accused have so far been arrested by the police. Lesco has so far charged a total of 72,288,019 detection units worth Rs2.79bn to all the power pilferers.

RECOVERY: The Lesco spokesman said the company, in collaboration with tehsildars, has recovered more than Rs11m from 571 chronic defaulters in all the five districts of Lahore, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib, Kasur and Okara.

`Up till now during the recovery campaign, Lesco with the help of tehsildars (Recovery) recovered more than Rs2.3bn from 78,832 dead defaulters in its all circles of operation.

He elaborated that Lesco recovered outstanding dues of Rs327m from 11,165 defaulters in Northern Circle; Rs554m from 10,250 defaulters in Eastern Circle; Rs313m from 8,964 defaulters in Central Circle; Rs128m from 4,590 defaulters in South Circle, Rs202m from 7,081 defaulters in Nankana Circle; Rs353m from 9,778 defaulters in Sheikhupura Circle; Rs139m from 12,425 defaulters in Okara Circle and Rs314m from 14,579 defaulters in Kasur Circle.