ISLAMABAD, Dec 15: The federal government has decided to hand over the Rs450 million telemetry system to the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) by March 2004, notwithstanding a 3-2 majority vote against it by Irsa members.

Informed sources told Dawn that Irsa had put to vote that whether or not it should take over the telemetry system from Wapda. The Irsa members from Punjab, the NWFP and Balochistan opposed the move, saying that Wapda should continue operating the system.

But members from Sindh and the Centre suggested Irsa to take over the system. They were of the view that there was no point in installation of the telemetry system if it was to be operated by Wapda that was responsible for water releases from dams and barrages. The arrangement was creating suspicion among the provinces.

When the matter was referred to the federal government, it ruled that the telemetry system would be operated by Irsa so that it could be monitored by all its five members.

The water and power ministry said the basic purpose of the telemetry system was to remove doubts over water releases. Political parties would again make it an issue if its monitoring continued in the Wapda’s jurisdiction, the ministry stated.

Accordingly, Wapda and the project contractors have been asked to remove all technical problems related to the telemetry system’s calibration so that an error-free system could be handed over to Irsa by March 2004.

The telemetry system was installed last year so that data related to water storage, inflows and outflows at all the dams and barrages could be monitored through a centralized computer system, simultaneously at provincial and federal headquarters.