LAHORE, Nov 30: Federal Water and Power Minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao has ruled out the possibility of providing any immediate relief in bills to the power consumers but promised to consider the option seriously.

Addressing a press conference after attending his first briefing at the Wapda House here on Saturday, he said no relief could be given to the consumers for the time being. But the government wanted to facilitate them and would see as to what kind of relief could be given to them.

About the recent paisas7.7 per unit increase in the electricity on the day of the oath taking of the federal cabinet, he said the increase had been notified four days earlier.

He said democracy had been restored and those who had come to power wanted to solve the problems of the people. They knew that the people had agitated on the issues of unemployment and inflation during the election campaign.

He said he had accepted his assignment as challenge because Wapda was a utility service providing organization.

He said Wapda had started work on a very big development outlay in both water and power sectors since 1976. Work on all the projects was continuing in accordance with the schedule except one or two. Positive results of the work would be visible by 2007-08.

He said the role of Wapda was very important in the agriculture oriented economy of the country. It had prepared a 20-year plan for utilizing the untapped water resources.

Answering a question about the Kalabagh dam for increasing the hydel power generation, Mr Sherpao said its construction was not in the interest of the people and the federation as two provinces had serious reservations about it and the third did not support it.

He said Kalabagh dam was mainly a water reservoir but as far as power generation was concerned it could be produced from the run of the river as well. He said construction of a dam was a colossal task requiring mobilization of resources on a large scale and settlement of a large number of population expected to be displaced as a result of its construction. Some of the people displaced while constructing Tarbela dam were still awaiting rehabilitation.

About the independent power producers (IPPs), he said he did not want to go into detail as to which government had done what in respect of signing agreements with the private companies selling electricity to Wapda. But these agreements had affected the entire country, he added.

When asked whether the government would like to move the International Court of Justice for review of the exorbitant power tariff of the IPPS, Mr Sherpao said the government had to fulfil international commitments as well.

About repatriation of army personnel associated with Wapda operations, he said an overwhelming majority of them had already been repatriated. Of the 35,000 armymen associated with Wapda, only 57 had been left with it by now.

Wapda chairman Lt-Gen Zulfiqar Ali and other high-ups also attended the press conference.