PESHAWAR: The Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federal Ministry of Water and Power have agreed to form a high level joint committee for chalking out a strategy to address the issues of power outages and other WAPDA and PESCO related problems.
The consensus was evolved at a high level meeting of KP Government and Federal Ministry of Water and Power. The meeting was held at CM Secretariat here Monday, with KP Chief Minister, Pervez Khattak in the chair.
Minister of State for Water and Power, Abid Sher Ali, KP Minister for Energy, Atif Khan, Minister for Information, Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani, Minister for information Technology, Shahram Khan Tarakai, Chief Secretary, Amjad Ali Khan, ACS, Dr. Hamad Agha, Secretary Energy, Ali Raza Bhutta, Managing Director, PEPCO, Umer Rasul, CEO PESCO, Syed Fazal, and other concerned officers also attended the meeting.
The committee would comprised of provincial ministers for Energy and Information Technology, Minister of State for Water and Power, KP Secretary Energy, Managing Director PEPCO, high ranking officer of WAPDA and its two senior retired officers.
The committee would devise such an efficient and sustainable system which could considerably reduce power load shedding in the province by utilizing full share of KP in total electricity production.
The committee would also formulate a plan for controlling electricity theft with help and assistance of provincial government besides recommending measures for timely completion of WAPDA schemes, establishment of new grid stations and early repairs of faulty power transformers.
During the meeting both sides discussed issues of power outages and other electricity related problems in the province. The Chief Minister highlighted the problems being faced by people of province due to unprecedented power load shedding urging federal government to ensure provision of full share of total power production of the province in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of Pakistan.
The meeting also took several important decisions for addressing these issues while provincial government assured its full cooperation in this respect.
Discussing payment of outstanding dues to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under the head of net hydel profit and the arrears thereof, it was decided that a Memorandum of Understanding on the subject matter would be finalized in presence of federal and KP government representatives, next Thursday in Islamabad.
Welcoming KP government proposals for overcoming power crisis, Minister of State, Abid Sher Ali appreciated efforts of Chief Minister in this regard. Admitting existence of corrupt elements in WAPDA, he assured that his ministry would implement power distribution and anti pilferage system in letter and spirit once it was devised by the joint committee. He also assured to complete the grid stations of Nowshera and Mardan regions within one year.
On the occasion, KP CM also stressed for providing 13.5 percent share in total electricity generation and assured full cooperation of provincial government to eliminate power theft. He, however, urged WAPDA to show seriousness towards the issue.
He was of the view that both sides should amicably try to address the issue instead of leveling allegations against each other adding that provincial government was ready to cooperate with WAPDA wholeheartedly.
