PESHAWAR, March 19: The provincial government would spend Rs15 billion from the Khushhal Pakistan Programme (KPP) funds on village electrification, Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Chairman Lt-Gen (retired) Zulfiqar Ali Khan said here on Monday.

“President Gen Pervez Musharraf has directed the provincial governors to identify rural areas in their respective provinces to help Wapda focus on village electrification,” he said.

The move, said the Wapda chairman, would equally serve the government’s poverty alleviation strategy as electricity supply to rural areas would create income-generating activities increasing economic opportunities for the general public.

Addressing a gathering of Wapda consumers, he said people should contact their elected counsellors and union Nazims to get the village electrification scheme of their area concerned covered under the government’s new plan — directives for which have already been issued to the provincial governments, added the Wapda chief.

Elaborating the government’s decision, he said the village electrification schemes left uncompleted or partially completed schemes would be given top priority under the programme.

Similarly, the Wapda chairman assured the participants that 50 per cent of the sanctioned tubewells would become operational by the close of the current financial year.

About his organization’s plans to improve power distribution network in Peshawar and other parts of the NWFP, the Wapda chief said 16 new sub-divisions would become functional by the end of the current month.

The move, he claimed, would improve the system as at present some of the sub-divisions were overburdened.