LARKANA, Nov 11: The Hyderabad Electric Supply Company has refused to undertake a fresh survey of villages to provide them electricity under the proposed village electrification plan.

Sources in the district government told Dawn on Saturday that the Sindh chief minister in a letter to the Hesco chief had discarded a previous survey of villages.

It had called for making fresh but joint survey by Hesco and revenue officials with the sole aim of making the survey transparent.

President Musharraf desires to bring in the fold of electrification more villages in Sindh and had asked for a fresh survey.

Under the criterion, 10 houses were called a village by the government, the sources said, and added that Larkana district comprised of about 1,400 villages.

In this connection, DCO Naseer Jamali had held a meeting with Hesco officials on September 19.

EDO (revenue) Ghulam Mustafa Phull, who is the convener of the committee, said that revenue officials in coordination with taluka nazims and union council nazims had conducted a fresh survey of villages after Hesco officials’ non-cooperative attitude.

The survey indicated that how many villages were without electricity.

The Hesco team that attended the meeting said that it would only survey the villages for which they had been provided a list from the head office.

The Hesco was stuck to its guns but refused to provide the list to the committee that had further complicated the process, sources said.

Hesco officials said that they would intimate the committee till September 28 whether they would agree to a fresh survey or not. The deadline had passed but Hesco had not turned up with any reply.

According to a fresh survey, jointly conducted by revenue officials, taluka nazims and union council nazims, there are 403 villages in Larkana district's 44 union councils which are yet to be electrified.

When the issue remained unresolved, the DCO in a letter to the Sindh secretary irrigation and power on October 29 sent the list of un-electrified villages in the district which stands at 403 villages.

He said that the executive engineer Hesco-I and II had refused to sign the lists taking plea that they had been directed by their superiors to go by lists already provided to them. It was learnt that Hesco had list of villages that was prepared based on 1985 survey and was reluctant to undertake fresh survey.

It is feared that the process of village electrification in the district could be affected if this row continues between the surveyors and their findings.