PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and water and power ministry on Monday agreed to form a joint high-level committee to resolve the issue of power outages and others related to Wapda and Pesco.

The decision was taken during a meeting between the representatives of provincial government and water and power ministry, said an official statement issued here.

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, state minister for water and power Abid Sher Ali, provincial energy minister Atif Khan, information minister Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, information technology minister Shahram Khan Tarakai, chief secretary Amjad Ali Khan, energy secretary Ali Raza Bhutta, Pepco managing director Umar Rasul and Pesco CEO Syed Fazal attended the meeting.

The committee, whose formation was agreed upon in the meeting, will comprise energy and information technology ministers, state minister for water and power, provincial energy secretary, Pepco chief, and a serving and two retired senior officers of Wapda.

A panel to be formed to devise system to cut outages in province

The statement said the committee would devise efficient and sustainable system that could reduce power outages across the province by utilising the province’s electricity share in electricity production.

“The committee would also formulate a plan to control power theft with help and assistance of provincial government,” it said, adding that it would also recommend measures for timely completion of WAPDA schemes, establishment of new grid stations and early repairs of faulty power transformers.

Both sides discussed power outages and other electricity related problems of the province in great length. Chief minister highlighted problems faced by the people of KP due to prolonged power outages and asked federal government to ensure provision of province’s full share of total power production to the KP in accordance to constitution.

The meeting took several important decisions for addressing these issues and the provincial government assured its full cooperation in this regard.

Regarding the province’s outstanding dues on account of net hydel profit and arrears, it was decided that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard would finalized in Islamabad next Thursday in the presence of federal and provincial government representatives.

Abid Sher Ali appreciated Chief Minister Pervez Khattak’s proposals to overcome power crisis and that his ministry would implement power distribution and anti-theft system in letter and spirit, once it is devised by joint committee.

He also assured of completion of Nowshera and Mardan region grid stations within a year.

Pervez Khattak said 13.5 percent share of the province in total electricity should be provided to the province and that his government would extend full support in elimination of power theft.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2015

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