KARACHI, April 18: City Nazim Niamatullah Khan, who is also chairman of the KWSB, has said that electricity bills of the Board should be based on agriculture rates instead of commercial rates and that the utility agency should be exempted from paying surcharges so that it could be able to undertake work on the improvement in its water supply and sewerage systems.

He was speaking at a meeting of the KWSB Board of Directors held on Saturday after a lapse of 21 months. Mr Khan told the meeting that if funds for the ongoing K-III water supply project were not provided forthwith, the work on it might stop.

The meeting gave approval to the minutes of last meeting and the budget for 2004-2005. The final approval, however, would be given at the City Council's budget meeting. The meeting urged the government to release Rs1,000 million for the K-III project immediately as it had already suffered due to a crisis of steel in the country.

Stressing that the power bills issued to the KWSB should be based on the tariff for agriculture, the Nazim demanded a refund of the amount paid by the Board since 2001 under this head.

He impressed upon the concerned officials to undertake repair of water lines, including plugging work to stop leakages, before the start of the K-III project as the new pipeline would have to be strong enough to stand pressure.

He also appealed to the beneficiaries of the KWSB system to clear their outstanding dues promptly to enable the public utility organization to continue and improve its service.

The budget approved by the Board envisages additional funds for the annual increments for its employees. The meeting also gave approval to the purchase of chlorine.

KWSB MD Shahid Saleem told the meeting that the year 2004-05 had been declared as 'the year of recovery' and in this regard, a special campaign would be launched. The meeting was attended, among others, by DCO Mir Hussain Ali, EDO Works Shoaib Siddiqui and Secretary Environment Shujaat Ali Qarni. -APP