ISLAMABAD, May 6: The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has said that provinces will get water as per their demand from Monday as the inflows in dams have significantly increased.
This was decided at a high-level meeting held on Saturday under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi to review water and power loadshedding situation.
The meeting was informed by the Irsa chairman that on Saturday rim station inflows were 188,300 cusecs against Irsa’s anticipation of about 173,000 cusecs.
The provinces’ demand would be met in full as water had been released from Tarbela Dam which would affect at Chashma on Monday.
From Monday Punjab would get 110,000 cusecs, Sindh 76,000 cusecs, the NWFP 2,700 cusecs and Balochistan 3,400 cusecs.
The increased supplies at Tarbela Dam would also increase the hydel-power generation.
LOADSHEDDING: The minister directed all the Power Distribution Companies (Discos) not to resort to unannounced loadshedding as there was no shortage of electricity.
The minister said that there would be no shutdown for maintenance except in emergency cases. The approval for the emergency shutdown would be taken from the higher authorities and consumers would be informed well in time.
He directed all Discos to keep close liaison with the minister’s complaint cell, and added that he would not spare anyone if failed to implement his instructions.
He further said that SEs, XENs and SDOs would be taken to task for unannounced loadshedding in their areas.
The minister was informed by chiefs of Discos that similar actions had already been taken against concerned SEs, XENs and SDOs on charges of loadshedding and negligence.
The minister directed all Discos to pull their available resources to reduce line losses and expedite recovery campaign against defaulters. However, he directed that no disconnection due to non payment would be made in the summer season without prior notice of seven days.
He said that the power companies should enhance their efforts to provide uninterrupted electricity to consumers as well as improve their performance to provide better services.
The minister directed the power generation companies to place all plants in order and run them in full capacity. To ensure supply of power smoothly there should be no long shutdowns of plants due to minor faults, he added.
