Inflated bills by K-Electric, layoffs by textile mills amid lockdown

Although the Sindh government had announced various incentives for the people amid the lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus, it seems some entities are now flouting these orders and directives.

One of them is K-Electric which ignoring the federal and provincial governments’ directives sent inflated bills to consumers instead of billing them in instalments.

When a large number of citizens reached the K-Electric offices after receiving these bills, there was no staff for correction.

It is reported that the K-Electric is sending bills with amounts twice the monthly average against the earlier promise of average billing. Hence, people are now supposed to pay thousands of rupees. In some cases, this amount is hundreds of thousands of rupees.

Meanwhile, the citizens were informed by a security guard at the utility’s Gulistan-e-Jauhar office that it will be reopened on April 14 at a time when the due date mentioned on the bill is April 10.

Separately, a textile mill, in a clear violation of the Sindh government’s announcements, dismissed over 700 employees amid the lockdown.

A large number of the sacked workers gathered outside the factory in the SITE area to register their protest against the owners on Tuesday.

They said they had been fired after deductions were made in their salaries last month.

According to the sacked workers, they were asked by the management to leave the factory by saying that their services were not required anymore. Some of them had remained associated with the textile mills for the last 10 years.

It is important to note that the Sindh government as well as PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had promised that no one would be fired from his or her job in the province during the lockdown and the employers were bound to release the full salaries.