LAHORE: The residents of Telephone Industries of Pakistan (TIP) Employees Cooperative Housing Society Phase-II Lahore are living without electricity for the last 6, 7 months, making earnest and repeated appeals to the society management and the provincial government as well as Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) to resolve the issue on urgent basis.
According to details, the society is located at Defence Road near Khayaban-e-Amin Lahore, and it consists of around 600 plots, of which more than 500 residents are living there. While talking to reporter, the residents said that the society had no electricity for a long time, and the management was doing nothing for finding a permanent solution to the problem, though they had never defaulted on payment of their electricity bills.
The residents said that earlier, the TIP society had an agreement with the adjacent Khayaban-e-Amin Society and power supply was being given to the society from there. However, about six months ago, something went wrong about the arr
angement, and the power supply was disconnected from that society. Since that time, the TIP society was managing power supply through generators for only few hours a day, the residents said while providing details. They said there was no fixed hours for power supply, and the residents were suffering badly in very harsh weather conditions.
The residents said: ‘We pay the society all bills including maintenance, security, water, etc., manually but not getting those facilities properly.” They claimed that general secretary and president of the society were not living in the society, therefore they were showing indifference to the problems of the residents.
The residents, comprising children and elderly people also, have been staging protest demonstrations at the society gate for months for provision of uninterrupted power supply and other facilities, but to no avail so far. They said the society residents were being provided power supply for only 7-8 hours a day through generators in this very hot and humid w
eather, which was sheer injustice with them. They said the electric home appliances were being damaged due to fluctuation of voltage.
The residents said they had met the registrar and secretary of the Punjab Cooperative Department also to get solved their problem. They were assured that the electricity issue would be solved, but nothing happened later on. The residents said they had filed a complaint with the office of the Deputy Registrar (DR) Cooperative Societies Lahore on April 17, 2024 about the issues, being faced by them, at the TIP society. The department, on May 27, 2024, ordered the TIP society management to resolve the electricity and other issues, but they were still awaiting implementation of those orders.
When reporter contacted TIP Society President Waqar A. Sheikh, he said that due to mismanagement and non-fulfillment of an agreement with a private housing society Kayaban-e-Amin, the TIP residents were facing electricity issues. He said that as per an agreement reached with the adjacent priv
ate society, the TIP society was given 30-kanal land for establishing a grid station. However, the private society failed to fulfill its promises of completing the process of grid establishment, hence electricity issues in the TIP society.
About electricity provided through generators, he said that 60 per cent of the society was on Lesco temporary connections, while 40 per cent residents were being provided electricity through generators. The TIP society president promised that the management would make all sincere efforts to resolve the issues soon and it would shift all electricity meters to Lesco lines.
The residents have appeal to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif to take notice and resolve their electricity issue on permanent basis.