BAHAWALPUR, Feb 7: The Bahawalpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) has expressed concern over the ongoing power loadshedding and demanded uninterrupted power supply.

BCCI President Dr. Rana Muhammad Tariq voiced this demand during a function at Circuit House here on Thursday where Punjab caretaker minister for agriculture, Khursheeduz Zaman Qureshi, was the chief guest.

The BCCI president said that industrial production had been hit badly due to intermittent electricity outages and workers, prominently daily wagers, were facing substantial cuts in their salaries beside job threats. This factor alone, he warned, would harm the country’s economy in near future. The BCCI was unable to play its active role to promote industrial growth, investment and exports if the situation persisted, he added.

He said the industrialists were forced to use generators to supplement their production and thus incurred heavy expenditures, causing them huge financial losses.

He also demanded that the role of electrical inspectors to check power consumption at industrial units should be minimised.

He said that 376 acres of land had been acquired to establish new industrial estate but the construction work had not yet been started.

He demanded that work on the proposed industrial estate project be started at the earliest.

Rana Tariq lamented that the Bahawalpur and its suburbs were producing 34 per cent of the total cotton and 20 per cent of wheat production of the country, but the area was being ignored in distribution of national resources and revenues and was not being given its due share. He demanded that availability of canal water to farmers at tails should be ensured.

The minister asked the BCCI to submit proposals to increase wheat and cotton yield with the use of modern equipment.

Qureshi said that cotton production target could not be achieved due to bugs attack during the last year. He also urged the farmers to use modern machinery to obtain standardised cottonseed.