LAHORE, June 4: The Indus River System Authority has refused to take over newly-installed telemetry system on the plea that it lacked the required expertise to run it.

The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), which was entrusted by ECNEC to install the system was supposed to hand it over to Irsa after the completion. But the recent spate of correspondence between the two agencies has left the system in an administrative lurch; Wapda repeatedly asking Irsa to take it over but the latter refusing to do the same.

In a letter to Irsa in February 2003, Wapda told Irsa to get ready for the take over by April 2003 and assign required staff for necessary training for formal charge of the system.

But, Irsa, in its reply to the authority, stated that it was not able to recruit any staff for the operation and management of the telemetry system because the Ministry of Water and Power had neither approved any budget for it nor released any funds in spite of repeated requests. In the absence of any funds, it had approached Sindh for sparing some staff for training and it had agreed. The authority could make such requests to other provinces if no funds were released in near future.

The Wapda then wrote a letter to the Ministry of Water and Power in the third week of March seeking its intervention to make Irsa prepare for the takeover. It maintained that Wapda was supposed to only install the system that it had done. It was also charged with the duty of training manpower for Irsa to maintain the system. The authority sent a comprehensive proposal to Irsa in Aug 2002 for the requirements and methodology of effective operation and maintenance of the project. It also stressed for early engagement of staff so that it could be trained on the job for a smooth takeover. In spite of repeated requests, Irsa had not been able to recruit or assign any staff for the project.

Commenting on the situation, an official of Wapda said that the authority did not want to be left holding this dangerous baby called telemetry system for two reasons. Firstly, it was its duty to hand over the system. Secondly, Wapda being accused, though completely unnecessarily, of siding with the Punjab did not want to generate a new controversy over the water distribution. Irsa, being a neutral watch-dog handling the national water affairs, should also handle the distribution mechanism.

Irsa has, however, other explanation to offer. Sources in it maintain that the authority is avoiding taking over the system because it is not properly calibrated and producing an “erratic data.” This may cause further confusion. It will take another year to fine tune the calibration process and the authority did not want more controversies than it was already in.