ISLAMABAD, Sept 8: The government has no intention of holding a referendum on the question of Kalabagh dam, but will take everybody on board to achieve a consensus on development of new reservoirs, said Water and Power Minister Liaqat Ali Jatoi.

Speaking at a news conference here on Wednesday, the minister said the government would not shy away from taking difficult decisions on the construction of new water reservoirs but reports of the two committees - parliamentary and technical - should come first.

He said all members of the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) had unanimously agreed to a formula last week on sharing of water shortages during the remaining period of Kharif and coming Rabi and hoped that these sentiments of mutual trust and accommodation would prevail in taking difficult decisions on the water issue.

The minister said it was the most difficult year for the country because of abnormal temperatures and less rains in catchment areas and hence the government would hold Namaz-i- Istasqa throughout the country on the coming Friday.

He said there was no method available for artificial rains or to melt glaciers. When told that the Ministry of Water and Power had conducted studies on artificial rains and melting of glaciers through charcoal or salt sprays, the minister said he was not aware of such studies and the government could not fight against the nature.

Mr Jatoi said the government was about to appoint consultants to conduct studies on water escapages downstream Kotri and the World Bank would provide names for the appointment of a panel of experts to monitor these studies.

He said it was very unfortunate that the government had to appoint a panel of experts on recommendations of the World Bank owing to the lack of confidence in local experts and added that the government would have to take steps to build confidence of stakeholders in domestic institutions.

He did not answer when asked about his own views on Sindh's contention that no reservoir was feasible because there was no surplus water. The minister said he was concerned about high line losses of power utilities and it was his top priority to bring these losses down and to overcome the problem of load shedding. He lamented that losses in some cases of the KESC stations were between 80-100 per cent.

He said he had decided to constitute minister's special inspection teams to check power theft and address consumer complaints. For this, he said, some technical equipment would be imported to identify pilferage points and check power thefts.

The minister said he would also start a public motivation campaign through electronic and print media and offer special packages for regularization of illegal connections to end line losses.

He said excess billings would not be tolerated at any cost and executive engineers, SDOs and meter readers found guilty of wrong billings would be suspended from service on public complaints. For this purpose, he said, special complaint centres would be set up throughout the country under his direct supervision.

When asked what mechanisms or plan he had to reduce the line losses which could not be reduced despite army's induction in the two utilities for over five years, the minister said he had the commitment and resolve to deliver results on that front.

Mr Jatoi said the government would support provincial governments in the execution of water-related projects speedily irrespective of the fact whether these were funded by the federal or provincial governments.

He said Hubco would be directly linked to the KESC system for which a contract had already been awarded to Siemens of Germany so that KESC could get about 500-mw from Hubco.

Meanwhile, the Jamshoro-Karachi Transmission Line would undergo a heavy maintenance and overhaul to bring load shedding problem of Karachi to an end. The minister said the government had planned to rehabilitate all five barrages which were in bad shape and the work would begin from Sukkur Barrage in December.