LAHORE: More Wapda officials than complainants - Governor's open court
By Zaheer Mahmood Siddiqui
LAHORE, July 14: Presence of a large number of Wapda employees instead of consumers at an open kutchery at Lesco's Saidpur grid station annoyed Governor Khalid Maqbool on Wednesday.
Asking the employees to vacate the seats for consumers, the governor left the stage, summoned Lahore district officer (revenue) Muhammad Bakhsh Awan and directed him to call the consumers immediately 'otherwise he would thrash him'.
The governor had gone to the grid station to listen to the complaints of people against Wapda, PTCL and SNGPL. He said the country was moving towards industrial development, poverty alleviation and improvement in living standard of the common man.
The demand for electricity, telephone and gas has increased because of the establishment of a large number of industries in the country. Wapda and SNGPL did not have resources to meet the growing demand but the PTCL system was comparatively better.
The governor asked the government functionaries to realize their responsibilities to serve the masses and resolve their problems. He also urged the consumers not to be impatient while facing minor problems.
The government was trying its level best to improve things, he said and invited Wapda chairman Tariq Hameed to brief the audience about his organization. Mr Hameed said consumers had been suffering because of deficiencies in the Wapda system. Electricity demand increased manifold while the production decreased because of certain reasons.
Water scarcity at Mangla forced the authorities to reduce the power generation to one-forth. The nuclear power plant was shut for maintenance for four weeks but it was still lying closed after the passage of two months.
He said water scarcity also enhanced the power demand in agricultural sector. As many as 35 per cent transformers had been purchased by the private sector and added to the burden on Wapda system.
Mr Hameed said his organization was taking measures to minimize the problems. PTCL general manager Hafeez Islam said the network of the corporation was fully stabilized and no breakdown occurred. The corporation had been providing all facilities through one-window operations.
He said 60,000 telephone connections would be given next year. Fibre optic was being laid and a new system was being installed to provide telephone and internet facilities through a single wire, he said.
The governor directed the PTCL general manager to redress the complaints of Arshad, Abid Abbas, Sadiq, Afzal, Qasim and others and submit a report to him in this regard. Bilal, Hafeez, Nasir, councillor Yaseen Farooqui, Athar Rauf and a widow complained about the presence of high tension wires over their houses, overbilling, low voltage, fluctuations and unannounced load-shedding.
A resident of Sabzazar said robbers took away a number of motorcycles and snatched cash from many people around the grid station as there were no streetlights. The governor said he would soon take up certain collective problems of Wapda consumers with the prime minister and the federal finance minister.
The governor said gas was available to only 20 per cent area of the Punjab. Lahore region general manager Mujahid Anwar of the SNGPL said around 675,000 gas connections had been given so far in the Punjab. He said there was a possibility of gas shortage after 2009 if new reserves were not found.
Many residents of Sabzazar said they had yet to get gas connections after passage of around 20 years. Mr Anwar said they had received the money from the LDA and work was under way to provide gas connections to all residents of Sabzazar.
Before leaving for Shalamar Town, the governor ordered the authorities of the three organizations to ensure easy availability of electricity, gas and telephone connections to the people and take measures to redress their grievances.
Employees in uniform were seen coming out of the auditorium of the Wapda Girls High School where arrangements were made for the open kutchery. The governor said the electricity demand had increased by 18 per cent against the estimate of 6 per cent.
SNGPL managing director Rashid Lone said so far his organization had provided more than 650,000 connections all over the country from 22 gas fields. He said five Pakistani and 20 multinational companies were exploring gas reserves on land and in the sea. He said some 200,000 new connections would be given in the country.
Lesco chief executive Bashir Zahid said there was load shedding in certain areas because of decrease mainly in hydle power production. "The power distribution system is overloaded," Mr Zahid said and added that every SE had been given 65 transformers to overcome the problem.
PTCL director-general (telephones) Pervaiz Khan said the pending demand in Lahore was 14,000. Union Council 41 Nazim Mian Iftikhar said the public were not properly informed about the open kutchery.
He regretted that no action had been taken to stop the discharge of polluted water into the Lahore canal. Nazims of union councils 43, 47, Naib Nazim of UC 46 said the power supply system in their areas had outlived, gas supply was not available and the residents of certain areas were without even the facility of clean drinking water.
Nabipura councillor Farzand Zaidi said the consumers should have the facility to pay utility bills at the post office. An activist of a political party told the governor that no government officer would listen to the people after the kutchery.
The governor asked the Lesco chief to direct all SDOs and other field staff to remain present in their offices from 8:30am to 11am. He directed the SNGPL to ensure that the people who deposited demand notes on time should get early connections.
