While welcoming the Tube Well Efficiency Improvement Programme (TWEIP), initiated by the USAID, the Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) has urged the government to extend interest-free loans to growers for participating in this programme and making it a success.
The programme would help reduce electricity consumption thus saving 20 to 40 percent in the agricultural tube wells' bills It will save millions of rupees of the farming community while saving of 45 megawatt of electricity would help reduce the loadshedding for thousands of tube wells, factories and domestic users, KBP added.
The demand was made by a five-member KBP delegation, which met the experts of the Lahore Electricity Supply Company (Lesco) and Wapda here Friday. KBP delegation was led by its Secretary Information Haji Muhammad Ramzan. Rana Anwar ul Hassan, Co-ordinator of the programme, briefed the KBP delegation about TWEIP programme and its advantages.
He said that the outdated technology of the electric motors installed on tube wells, was resulting in huge consumption of electricity. If this machinery is replaced with latest technology it will result in reduction of 20 to 40 percent in the bills for the growers and saving of 45 mw of electricity. Giving further details, he said that growers who wish to get installed this latest technology, would have to pay half of the expenses, while half would be provided by the USAID as subsidy.
Speaking on the occasion, KBP delegation observed that it would be very hard for the growers to pay even half of the expenses especially in the wake of sky-rocketing prices of electricity, diesel and other agricultural inputs. They said it would be better that the government provide interest-free loans to the growers for this programme so that small growers could also take advantage of this programme. Lesco officials promised to forward these suggestions of the growers to the authorities concerned.