LHC seeks Lesco reply in MTS power bill petition

LAHORE - The Lahore High Court (LHC) Monday admitted for regular hearing a petition filed by Model Town Society (MTS) against excessive electricity bill and sought a detailed reply from the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) till October 31. The court also extended the interim stay order and barred the Lesco from disconnecting electricity supply to the society.
On previous hearing, the court had expressed strong reservations about the Lesco performance and ordered its administration to submit a report till October 27 about what action it had taken against its employees who did not take reading of the second feeder of the Model Town Society for five years, causing heavy monetary losses to the company.
On Monday, a Lesco official submitted that the responsibility was being fixed for grave negligence and responsible would be proceeded against.
Lesco’s report had revealed that actually the company had provided two feeders to the society. The society was using both of them alternatively. The report further said the main reason behind sending excessive bill of Rs 73 million was that the Lesco had never noted down the reading of second feeder for five years. And due to that reason no bill of second feeder was sent to the MTS.
The MTS through its counsel Mian Iftikhar had challenged the excessive bill of Rs 73 million.
The counsel pointed out that the society received an average bill of Rs 40 million per month but all of a sudden it surged to Rs 120 million as the Lesco had issued a bill with additional amount of Rs 73 million without any justification. The counsel pointed out that Lesco had not informed the society under what law and for what reason it was charging excessive amount of Rs 73 million.