HYDERABAD: Leaders of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Hyderabad chapter have demanded an end to forced recovery of bills through detection from consumers in order to cover line losses and corruption of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco).

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday at the local press club, Hafiz Tahir Majeed, Dr Saifur Rehman and Abdul Qayyum Hyder announced to launch a movement against Hesco.

They would hold protests in all districts falling in the jurisdiction of Hesco`s region and also move court against detection bills, they said.

They said the party would wage a long movement against Hesco that would be started with protests on Friday in different areas of the city.

They demanded that already issued detection bills should be withdrawn; unannounced loadsheddingmust stop and better electricity wiring be done to avoid frequent faults in transformers.

Calling for removal of `corrupt and immoral` Hesco officers, they also asked for establishment of new grid stations to meet requirement of the increasing population. A facility of one-window operation should be started for power consumers, they added.

They said the water and power minister should visit Hyderabad and hear grievances of the consumers. Accountability of officers should be conducted to know if their assets were justified by their known sources of income, they added.

The JI leaders said Hesco had made lives of power consumers miserable in the sweltering heat as prolonged power outages continued for four to five days in a row while disconnection of power supply, f ault in transformers and indifferent attitude of Hesco employees had become the order of the day.

Regretting the attitude of Federal Minister Omar Ayub, they said that like the past governments, his government also f ailed to provide relief to people.

They said that on one hand workers were sacked and people commit-ted suicide due to price hike while ministers were busy in issuing statements and counter statements.

They said that uncalled for power outages affected small-scale economic activities and water shortage was also reported by the Water and Sanitation Agency due to power breakdown.

They said thatissuance of detection bills had become a huge problem as far as bona fide consumers were concerned. They demanded action against those employees and consumers involved in power theft.

They said faulty transformers were not replaced and if the Hesco management took notice, that too after repeated complaints, consumers were forced to pay for the work.

The power utility forced consumers to come to the streets. They said Hesco claimed expenditure of billions of rupees in the name of upgrading its system, but the power utility f ailed to perform.

They vowed that the JI would not leave people of Hyderabad alone in the crisis.

If the federal government had some sense of responsibility to redress public grievances, a ruthless accountability should be started in Hesco, they urged.