HYDERABAD, Dec 11: Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf has ordered officials to initiate a campaign against power thieves and to submit a report in this regard within 15 days.
He directed the Hyderabad Electricity Supply Company (Hesco) chief K.B. Qureshi and other senior Hesco officials to take effective measures to check power theft and to do away with the ‘kunda system’.
He hoped that the elected representatives would extend all-out cooperation to the relevant officials to eliminate the menace.
These orders came during the minister’s visit to Hyderabad. Mr Ashraf was talking to Hesco officials and public representatives at the residence of the Pakistan People’s Party MNA, Nawab Abdul Ghani Talpur.
The federal minister said that recovery process of outstanding dues from various government and private sector organisations, commercial and domestic Hesco consumers should be expedited without any delay.
He said that prompt recovery of outstanding dues would help check the increasing power outages. The minister said that the SDOs should be given recovery targets and the relevant officials be directed to submit weekly recovery reports.
Taking strong notice of transfers and postings in Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), the minister imposed a ban on transfers and postings for three months and ordered strict implementation of the ban.
On the request of Nawab Abdul Ghani Talpur, he also directed that promotion orders of as many as ten engineers of the Jamshoro Thermal powerhouse, which had been withheld for the last 15 years, should be issued and assured that the promotion orders of seven more engineers would also be issued very soon.
The federal minister said that the government was taking all-out measures for the elimination of load-shedding by next year. He said that all the electrification projects in Sindh would be completed within the stipulated time.
Nawab Talpur pointed out that the cost of production of electricity from Lakhra coal field was much less as compared with other powerhouses operating on furnace oil and gas but vested interests were trying to fail this project.
He said this was the reason that this
powerhouse had never achieved its
maximum target of producing 150MW electricity.
This powerhouse was built at a cost of Rs17 billion while a new such powerhouse would cost more than Rs80 billion, Talpur said. He pleaded that all the three units of this powerhouse should be made operational in the national interest and corrupt officials should be taken to task.
Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Privatisation Syed Naveed Qamar said that the peoples’ government was making all -out efforts to honour its promises made with the people and added that the masses would be provided with all possible relief.
He was speaking at a reception hosted in his honour by a central leader of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party’s minority wing, Dr Ashok Kumar, at Tando Mohammad Khan. He said that notwithstanding the fact that the government was confronted with many problems, it was taking effective steps to provide jobs to the jobless youths and to get rid of price hike.
He said that it was a great honour for the PPP that its slain chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, had been conferred with an international award for her services in the cause of democracy, peace and humanity.
The minister said that the martyrdom day of Benazir Bhutto would be observed throughout the country on Dec 27. He said that her sacrifices would not go in vain. Some miscreants were trying to destroy peace in Karachi but they would be dealt with an iron hand, the minister said.
MPA Syed Mohsin Shah Bukhari and Dr Ashok Kumar also spoke.