KARACHI - City Nazim Mustafa Kamal has said that despite the district government has no role in the affairs of KESC, the City government owned the utility during the last four years because the organisation belonged to his city. Inaugurating a new grid station constructed with a cost of Rs460 million by KESC in Gulshan-e-Maymar, he said: If we would not own the KESC, it would harm. Kamal said that if a tree was axed, an FIR might be registered against the culprit but we allowed cutting of newly constructed roads only in the larger interest of citizens. The current planning process would also enable KESC to supply electricity to other parts of the country. The Chief Executive KESC Tabish Gohar and Vice Chairman of SITE Association Limited Ahsan Al Rashid also spoke on the occasion. Kamal said that KESC was the most important organisation of the City, therefore, everyone should cooperate with it so that its performance could improve. He said power theft was a crime and there were serious reports that even rich consumers were involved in this practice and such a situation cannot bring improvement in the performance of KESC. Therefore, he said, the citizens should pay their electric bills regularly and own the organisation instead of mere criticism. Speaking on the occasion, the CEO Tabish Gohar said that KESC administration had invested Rs20 billion in power generation sector and 500 new PMTs were being installed besides construction of new Grid Stations. These measures would increase power generation up to 450MW, he informed. We need the support and cooperation from citizens including political parties to stop power theft. He said large scale power theft was going on while various institutions do not pay electric bills and there were dues of 46 billion rupees against government organisations. We need cooperation of citizens icluding political parties to get power theft stopped. Gohar said that because of non-availability of funds for purchase of furnace oil and for maintenance and repair work, BIN Qasim unit had to be closed as a result of which KESC had to resort to three hours of loadshedding even during winters. He said that KESC had installed new power plants on gas but now it was getting 70 per cent less gas as a result of which objectives remained unachieved. He said even during such conditions, KESC was striving day and night to provide better service to citizens and would solve the problems of people by holding open katcheries. Gohar disclosed that there was a suggestion to divide Karachi into zones so that low income areas could be provided 40 per cent subsidy while another proposal was under consideration to give amnesty to poor areas and change the 'kundas into legal connections. He said if citizens and specially the small traders extend coooperation, then 200MW of electricity could be conserved and power crisis would not end until power theft was stopped. Vice Chairman SITE Association Ahsan Al-Rashid said that measures taken by City nazim had resulted in an increase in the investment in the City.