HYDERABAD, Nov 24: Hesco chief K.B. Qureshi has directed the company officials to launch a vigorous campaign on war footings to recover electricity dues from defaulters and to constitute recovery teams and submit daily reports to him.

A spokesman for Hesco said here on Sunday that the chief engineer operation at the company headquarters will monitor the recovery operation.

According to the spokesman, the Hesco chief has warned that if 100 per cent recovery of electricity bills is not made for the month of November 2008 and the line losses were not reduced, strict action will be taken against the officials concerned.

He has urged the consumers to clear their electricity dues without any delay and added that theft of electricity was not only a moral crime but also a legal offence.

He said that a huge amount of Rs27 billion was outstanding against the domestic and government consumers.

AWAMI TEHRIK: Annual elections of the Awami Tehrik, Hyderabad district chapter, were held here on Sunday.

Zahid Mallah, Dewan Arumal, Sarmad Rajpar, Javed Bhatti, Ghayan Chand, Ayaz Samoon, Akhtar Hafeez and Roshan Kalrani were elected president, vice-president, general secretary, joint secretary, treasurer, information secretary, cultural secretary and office secretary, respectively.