Theft of electricity could not be happened without the involvement of employees : Secretary Ministry of Water and Power

Lahore : National Assembly Standing Committee on Water and Power met under the chairmanship of Muhammad Arshad Khan Laghari to discuss the following agenda.

1 -Confirmation of minutes of the meeting held on 28^th April, 2016.

ii)  Presentation of the report of the Sub-Committee constituted on the issue of performance of DISCOs of Sindh;

iii) Implementation status of the recommendations made by the Standing Committee in its meetings during the quarter 1^st January, 2016 to 30^th June, 2016;

iv)  Ministry to brief the Committee on all types of energy development Schemes/Projects (Hydel, Solar, Wind, Coal etc) underway in the country.

v)  Comprehensive briefing by the Alternative Energy Development Board on the projects under taken by the Board from 2013 to enhance the production of electricity in the country, their date of commencement, present status and expected date of completion.

vi) Present status of development Projects/Schemes of National Transmission Dispatch Company (NTDC).

The Secretary Ministry of Water and Power admitted that theft of electricity could not be happened without the involvement of WAPDA employees as this matter could not be resolved without the cooperation of provincial governments. The Committee recommended the Ministry to take provincial governments on board to resolve the matter and also take strict action against the culprits.

The Committee was informed that Government of Sindh has to pay Rs. 70 Billion to Federal Government in terms of outstanding amount of electricity which has not been paid yet while Federal Government had offered 40-60 ratios for payment of outstanding amount but unfortunately it could not be happened. The Ministry sought support of the Committee to resolve the matter.

The Minister took notice of the Forced Load-shedding of electricity in some DISCOs and directed the management to report the Committee regarding the matter and also ensure the Committee that strict action should be taken against the responsible. The Committee also directed the Ministry to eliminate the factor of overbilling in order to facilitate the individual consumer.

Earlier, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Federal Minister for Water and Power was briefly apprised the Committee about different power projects of (Hydel, Solar, Wind, Coal etc) which was initiated by the present Government to overcome the shortfall of the electricity.

MNAs, Muhammad Junaid Anwaar Chaudhry, Malik Ihtebar Khan, Sardar Mansab Ali Dogar, Rana Muhammad Ishaq Khan, Pir Muhammad Aslam Bodla, Rao Muhammad Ajmal Khan, Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah, Nawab Muhammad Yousuf Talpur, Malik Ghulam Rabbani Khar, Junaid Akbar, Maulana Muhammad Gohar Shah, Dr. Syed Ghazi Ghulab Jamal and Sahibzada Muhammad Yaqub attended the meeting, besides officials of the Ministry.