Federal Minister for Railways Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour Wednesday demanded of the federal government to enhance the power supply to Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa (KP) from the existing 1300 megawatts to 2200MW for meeting its power need. The issue was raised in a meeting held between the Railways Minister and Minister for Water and Power Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar here on Wednesday.
Bilour said KP province produces around 3200MW of electricity, but it receives only 1300MW-even less than one-third of the province's contribution of electricity to national grid. The minister said that despite the government's announcement of no loadshedding during Sehr, Iftar and Tarawih timings, the situation gives a contrary picture. Bilour said that though KP province needs to be supplied the whole produce of electricity, the people of provinces are ready to sacrifice their share for their brethren of other provinces.
"But at least our people should be supplied one-third of total production that is 2200MW," Bilour demanded. He said the price of the electricity produced in KP is cheaper than that of other provinces, but despite that people of the province were suffering owing to load-shedding.
In response, Ahmed Mukhtar said he has summoned a meeting to be attended by chairmen of all power distribution companies, hoping that the situation would be resolved within days. The Water and Power Minister said the government would try its utmost to provide maximum relief to people through efficient power management.
Bilour told Mukhtar that he would meet him again within a couple of days to raise the issue again if it remained unresolved. The Minister said that he also called on President Asif Zardrai on Tuesday and had raised the very issue of prolonged load-shedding before him. Bilour quoted the President as saying that he was cognisant of the situation and would take steps to control it without any delay.
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