Senior Provincial Minister for Planning, Energy and Power Rahim Dad Khan on Friday said the provincial cabinet will decide the two weekly offs to overcome the energy crisis. Presiding over the meeting of Energy Task Force to ensure implementation on the decisions of National Energy Conference, he said the provincial government is taking pragmatic measures to overcome the energy crisis, however, it is impossible without the co-operation of the masses, he added.
"The government realises the losses faced by trader communities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa due to energy crisis, terrorism and militancy," he remarked. Rahim Dad said power crisis is a national issue which is affecting the whole country. The provincial government respects the opinion of traders' community about two weekly holidays and would take only those decisions which are in favour of the masses.
Earlier, Secretary Department of Energy Zafar Iqbal informed the participants of the meeting that 700Mw of electricity could be saved if the working hours are reduced to five days in a week, adding that if the commercial markets are closed by 8pm at night it would help save 250MW additional.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Engineer PESCO Latif Khan noted that unnecessary use of electricity is contributing to more power loadshedding. He said the company is observing 8 hours loadshedding in Peshawar, 10 hours in other cities of the province and 14 to 18 hours in rural areas.
PESCO is struggling to meet 928MW shortfall by observing 8 to 18 hours of loadshedding, he said and added that sometime RCC Islamabad shuts down the power to reduce the load. He said the loadshedding could be reduced if the consumers use the electricity responsibly.
The representatives of trader community and Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that their businesses are declining day by day due to inordinate loadshedding. Senior Minister Bashir Bilour lauded the traders' community for co-operating with the government and holding dialogue instead of agitation for resolution of their issues.
He said keeping in view the suffering and losses of the trader community due to terrorism, the provincial government provided 18 million to compensate the traders. Provincial Minister for Labour and Manpower Sher Azam and others called for taking practical measures to curb the electricity theft. The meeting was attended by Provincial Ministers, Secretaries, Commissioners, Inspector General of Police, Chief Engineer PESCO, representatives of Chamber of Commerce and Industry and trader communities from across the province.
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