KARACHI: Sindh govt decides to pay KESC, Wapda arrears
KARACHI Sept 12: A high level meeting held here on Thursday under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary, Sindh, K.B. Rind, decided that the provincial government will clear the arrears of the electricity bills of WAPDA, HESCO and KESC, outstanding against its different departments up to June 2002, while it will be the responsibility of the district governments’, taluka municipal administrations’ and union councils’ concerned to pay such bills after that period.
The meeting was informed that the KESC has arrears outstanding against the provincial home, agriculture, S and GAD, education, labour, zakat and ushr departments, while the SCARP, public health engineering, police, health and welfare, commissioners, deputy commissioners, auqaf, forests, wildlife, water management, labour and manpower, information, culture, tourism, board of revenue, highways and other government and semi-government departments were defaulters of HESCO.
The chief secretary asked the HESCO and KESC authorities not to disconnect power supply to essential services like the Sindh High Court, other courts, wireless, water supply, sewerage, hospitals etc for the non-payment of bills. However, an effective strategy is being devised to ensure the payments of arrears for these departments.
Rind said that WAPDA’s on-going work on certain projects in Sindh was satisfactory. He stressed the need to ensure early completion of the village electrification programme in remote areas.
The meeting was told that WAPDA was executing 1700 schemes under the Khushhal Pakistan Programme, Taameer-i-Watan Programme, Village Electrification Programme, the Sindh Arid Zone Development Authority etc, and all the schemes would be completed in the next six months. It was further said that people applying for electricity connections through Nazimeen will be provided connections on an instalment basis, and initially, they would be charged Rs1000, and the rest would be collected in monthly instalments.
Additional Chief Secretary Planning and Development Shahzado Shaikh, Secretary Finance Fazal Rahman, Secretary (General Administration) Arif Azeem, Secretary Local Government Qamar Zaman, Secretary Irrigation and Power Hashim Leghari and the managing directors of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation and Hyderabad Electric Supply Company attended the meeting.
BAITUL MALL: The Managing Director, Pakistan Baitul Maal, Brig Mohammed Sarfraz met Sindh Chief Secretary K.B. Rind and discussed the zakat system.
The chief secretary informed the MD Baitul Maal that a large number of needy people in Sindh deserve the attention of Baitul Maal and as such, this system should be made more effective.
Agreeing to the views of the chief secretary, the MD Baitul Maal said that mustahqeen will be provided assistance in employment, medical treatment and education under recommendations of Nazimeen at the district level and chairman taluka council at the taluka level.
He stated that Rs1.8 million have been allocated for rehabilitation of affected persons of the Rohri Canal breach, and Rs72 million for the needy people of Sindh.
He said that on the discretion of the chief secretary and government of Sindh, the sick, handicapped and utmost needy people could be provided assistance from Rs10,000 to 20,000.
On the occasion, Rind handed over to the MD Baitul Maal an application received by post from one Anwar Moeen Khan, a resident of Gulistan-i-Jauhar suffering from diabetes.
The MD Baitul Maal immediately issued orders for the provision of Rs10,000 as cash assistance.
The chief secretary also sought cooperation of the Baitul Maal for the assistance of victims of the Korangi boiler burst. Brig Sarfraz assured all possible cooperation in this regard.
During the meeting, senior member of the Board of Revenue, Manzoor Bhutto, informed that Rs1.90 million have been earmarked by the zakat council for the help of drought affected people of Thar, while the Sindh government has also approved Rs10 million for this purpose.—PPI/APP
