MUZAFFARGARH, Feb 3: The Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco) has sent Rs300,000 bill to the local administration for the power the former had supplied to the latter to operate streetlights installed on main highways and roads of the city five years ago.

These streetlamps kept the city roads lit for not more than a year as Mepco disconnected their connections after authorities concerned defaulted on paying consecutive bills throughout the first year of their operation.

Many of the poles have begun to rust nowadays as no department or civic authority is keen to maintain the ‘defunct’ structures and Mepco’s accumulated arrears, including late payment surcharge, have swollen to the tune of Rs300,000. Owing to alleged negligence or an apparent tug-of-war between three departments, many of the streetlight poles were never equipped with bulbs or tubes to provide the citizens with lighting comfort during nighttime.

Initially, the provincial highways and roads departments were responsible to execute the mega project of installing and maintaining streetlights but after the completion of the installation, the tehsil municipal administration (TMA) was allegedly entrusted with maintenance task — a responsibility the municipal authority apparently never accepted.

During a visit from Tulheri Bypass to Muzaffargarh-Alipur Road and Mianwali and Jhang roads, Dawn witnessed that many of the poles had either been stolen or fallen owing to a lack of maintenance.

The executive engineers of the highways and roads departments told Dawn that they had handed over the poles to Muzaffargarh tehsil municipal officer (TMO).

They said that they wrote many letters to the district coordination officer (DCO) to take the possession of these poles, but to no avail. Later, they handed the possession of these poles over to the TMO for their look after and subsequent maintenance and renovation.

TMO Kaleem Jhakkar said that his department never got the possession of these poles from the provincial highways and the roads departments.

An official said that all the participant of a meeting became surprised when this matter was brought into the notice of DCO Tariq Javed Malik after MEPCO officials insisted payment as many of these poles had not been provided power supply.

A Mepco official said that these poles were duly provided with power supply but when the electricity wires and other equipment were not guarded properly, thieves started stealing the costly infrastructure.

He said that the poles were provided three separate metered connections with account numbers 06079030, 07293038 and 0665904. He said that last readings on these metres noted down by the officials were 5,058, 9,294, and 64 and the company disconnected the power supply only after the authorities concerned defaulted on paying the bills for the whole one year and the arrears were still unpaid despite the lapse of four years.Still no local or provincial government department is ready to look after these ‘ill-fated’ poles which are falling pray to rusting and their theft is also going on unhindered.

Mian Kamal Qureshi, a local PML-N leader, said that people of the area were very much delighted after the initiation of this utility but they were even more disappointed when they saw this project failing in no time.

DBA President Zubaidulslam Shirwani said that Muzaffargarh was a rich district owing to existence of several industries here and there was no reason to deprive its citizens of comforts they deserved like the people of Lahore or Multan only on account of misuse of money by local officials.

DCO Tariq Javed Malik said that he was looking into the matter and that he would take appropriate action soon.