Fearing the wrath of citizens over the inflated bills, the officials of Lahore Electric Supply Company threw the consumers’ bills in front of their houses and shops and ran away in Pattoki city of Punjab’s Kasur district on Monday.
The residents of Hussain Khan Wala Chak No 8 were seen picking up their bills which were spread all over the street. Among them were also women who came to collect their bills.
The residents protested against the hiked prices of electricity as they burned their bills and refused to pay them. They claimed that the price per unit has gone up to Rs75 from the earlier Rs17 after multiple taxes were imposed.
They urged the caretaker government to provide them with electricity on the charges collected last year.
Read: PM Kakar stops short of immediate relief on electricity bills
Protests erupted all over the country after power consumers were charged exorbitant amounts in their monthly electricity bills after the government hiked the price of electricity while many called for not paying taxes.
Trade bodies and political parties announced countrywide protests against the government and power distribution companies.
Enraged power consumers protested in Karachi, Rawalpindi, Jahanian, Jhelum, and Lahore while on a few instances, employees of electricity companies were beaten by people after they tried to remove metres of consumers.
The Peshawar Electric Supply Cooperation on Sunday directed its staff to remove all green number plates from its vehicles as a safety measure against likely damaged angry protesters.
In a circular, the utility officials directed the staff to put the non-essential vehicles off the road and also asked for police protection for its seven sub-divisions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the people have taken to the streets to protest against their inflated electricity bill. Pesco in its letter to Peshawar police warned of possible vandalisation of its properties.
