LAHORE  -  On the 14th day of anti-power theft operation, Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) got arrested 14 electricity thieves by the police and detected pilferage on 475 connec­tions in all circles, the company’s spokesman confirmed to media here Wednesday. He added that FIR applications against 473 elec­tricity thieves had been submitted in the respective police stations, out of which 310 FIRs had been registered while 14 accused were arrested. Among detected con­nections, six were agricultural, 13 commercial and 456 domestic cat­egories and supply to all of them have been disconnected, he said, asserting that all the electricity pilferers have also been charged a total of 908,707 detection units worth Rs 33.503 million.

Sharing further details, the spokesman said that 14,436 de­tection units of Rs 450,000 were charged to an agricultural connec­tion in Kot Muhammad Sharqpur, 2200 detection units of Rs 160,000 to a commercial connection in Kabadi Market Sikandria Nawan Kot, 6520 units worth Rs 360,000 to a pilferer in Imamiya Colony Ferozwala, 6,971 detection units bill amounting to Rs 298,840 to an­other electricity theif in Baghban­pura, and 4,500 units of detection bill amounting to 250,000 to a con­nection in Jaya Musa Shahdara.

The spokesman mentioned that during the two weeks of anti-pow­er theft operations, the LESCO de­tected pilferage on a total of 6,050 connections in its domain. The company also submitted FIR ap­plications against 5,401 electricity pilferers, out of which 4,583 FIRs have been registered and 334 ac­cused have so far been arrested. 

All the electricity pilferers have been charged an accumulative bill of Rs 571.024 million against 13,251,998 detection units. It should be noted that operations against electricity thieves are being conducted as per the instructions of Ministry of Energy (Power Divi­sion) and the LESCO Chief Execu­tive Officer (CEO) Engineer Shahid Haider is personally supervising these operations, he maintained.

Engineer Shahid Haider vowed that indiscriminate operations would continue till the complete end of electricity theft. During the operation, the electricity thieves as well as the LESCO officers and employees who patronize them are also being brought to justice.

Meanwhile, lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) in collabora­tion with Tehsildars (Recovery) has recovered Rs 29.17 million from 997 dead defaulters in all its circles during eighth day of its recovery campaign. LESCO spokesman told media here on Wednesday that on the eighth day, Chief Engineer O&M (T&G) Zafar Iqbal with the support of Tehsildar City Mujahid Zia and Tehsildar Shalimar Noreez Huma­yun recovered outstanding dues of Rs 4.31 million from 97 defaulters in Northern Circle and Rs 4.52 million from 96 defaulters in Eastern Circle respectively. Similarly, LESCO Man­ager (Material Disposal) Engineer Anwar Watto along with Tehsildar Model Town Rana Arsal and Tehsil­dar Cantt Sajjad Qureshi recovered Rs 5.56 million from 124 defaulters in Central Circle and Rs 2.04 million from 97 defaulters in South Circle.