September 27, 2002	Friday	Rajab 19, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 26: The interior minister, Moinuddin Haider, has asked the courts not to grant stay orders to those, who create hurdles in the way of development work and other nation- building projects.

He was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of Captain Taimoor Shaheed grid station here at F-6/1 on Thursday.

The minister said the project was in cold storage for the last 12 years due to litigation.

Criticizing the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), he deplored that some of the civil society bodies created hurdles in the construction of the grid station. “The NGOs start hue and cry when an animal dies, but remain silent on the miseries of human beings,” he said.

Expressing dissatisfaction over high power tariff, the minister said a large number of people could not afford to pay huge bills and those who were consuming power were meeting its expenses very difficultly.

He said a political decision regarding adoption of thermal power system in the country was absolutely wrong because despite having all facilities to have hydel power system, our politicians did not go for it.

“We are sitting on huge coal reserves amounting to Rs2 billion, which could be utilised to generate low-cost power. Wapda can reduce the tariff by utilising other methods of power generation and resources like natural gas etc. We can also take help from International Power Producers (IPPs) as last resort.”

Mr Haider said a lot of work was needed to save the wastage of water, which was received through rains, glaciers and other resources. “Millions of people are still jobless, who can be accommodated if Wapda enhances its performance,” he added.

He hoped that a 25-year plan of Wapda would brought about a revolution in the country, if completed successfully.

“No country can progress unless its industrial and agriculture sectors and residents are given the required power to run their businesses,” he added.

He said high power tariff could be reduced if Karachi electric supply company and Wapda followed the Iesco and reduce their line losses from 50 per cent to 15 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Iesco claimed that over 20,000 people in the Capital and adjacent areas would be benefited from the grid station.

The Iesco chief executive, Brig Waseem Zafar, said the grid station had two feeders, one in the name of an employee of Wapda, Shakir, and other in the name of a line man of IESCO, Malik Altaf Hussain.

A 6.3 MVA transformer had been installed in the grid station at a cost Rs40 million, he said adding “in the next phase, another transformer with a capacity of 10 to 13 MVA will be installed to get eight more feeders.”

He said the Iesco had a reward of lowest line loss rate of 10.8 per cent.

He said the company’s revenue had been doubled in the current fiscal from Rs11 billion to Rs22 billion. “Similarly, 10 grid stations have been upgraded and 60 new feeders have been purchased.

He said 40 new feeders and 2000 new transformers would be installed at a cost Rs300 million to improve the system.

He said disciplinary action had been taken against 1600 employees during last three years on corruption charges. “Of which 55 officials and 190 other staff members were fired.