Students left ‘powerless’ as education department fails to pay electricity dues

Karachi

Around 1,100 of the 3,600 government schools in Karachi are now without power as the education department has failed to clear outstanding electricity dues amounting to Rs44.4 million.

Left with little choice, the schools have resorted to illegal connections. “We have had no electricity for two-and-a-half months. How can a school run without electricity? I had no other option but to ask our gate keeper to get an illegal connection,” says the headmistress of one of the affected schools.

Water cannot be pumped without power and the students who suffer the most are those who have chosen computers as a subject. “In the absence of electricity, the computers are nothing more than big square boxes that occupy space,” she said, adding that 500 students at her school were suffering because of the neglect of authorities.

“Disconnect electricity from the offices and houses of these officers so that they understand the pain my students face everyday,” she adds.

Ghullam Nabi, who heads the Reform Support Unit at the education department, states that out of the 1,100 schools without electricity, several may be using illegal connections. “When I say 1,100 schools do not have electricity, I mean they do not have regular meters.”

On September 5, 2012, the Karachi Electric Supply Company disconnected power to over a 100 schools, as well as 27 other offices and institutions of the education department due to their outstanding electricity bills. Earlier in November 2011, the power to several colleges was disconnected as the Directorate of Colleges owed Rs26,056,837 to the KESC.

The education department currently owes a whopping Rs56,499,217 to the power utility. The amount includes about Rs5.9 million rupees owed by the Sindh Directorate of College Education, six million rupees owed by Directorate of Technical Colleges as well as the 44.4 million rupees that have to be paid by EDO Elementary.

A KESC official accepts that the education department is one of its biggest defaulters.

“As a general practice, we send them notices after the due date has passed. After repeated notices, when no reply from the education department appears, we are left with no option but to disconnect their electricity,” said a spokesman for the power utility. On the other hand, Director Colleges Nasir Ansar blamed the status quo on KESC.

Posted in: Karachi News