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Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Power cuts increased despite payment to IPPs: KhosaLAHORE: PPP Secretary General Sardar Latif Khosa said on Monday that people were “perturbed and justifiably angry” because they were braving the “torture of load shedding” despite the government had paid Rs 320 billion to IPPs.
“In fact, the duration of load shedding has increased as compared to the past,” he said in a statement. He said the credibility of government has plummeted after it could not meet its commitment of carrying out no load shedding during iftar, sehr and taraveeh. He said that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif should set up his office in a tent at Minar-e- Pakistan to protest against load shedding as he had been doing so during the PPP government.
Khosa said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chief minister had decided to protest against the federal government over load shedding because KP was not getting due share of electricity.
He said that Shahbaz Sharif should have spent billions of rupees on the generation of electricity instead of spending provincial resources on “Jangla [Metro] Bus Service” and Raiwind Road.
The PPP leader said that after the 18th Amendment, provinces were allowed to generate electricity, adding, “Shahbaz Sharif should let people know how many electricity projects he has planned and executed”. He added that not a single unit of electricity had been generated by Shahbaz Sharif’s government in Punjab during the last five years.
Khosa said Shahbaz Sharif had spent Rs 370 billion of the local government on the projects of his own choice. “He should have spent this amount on generation of electricity by putting turbines along Indus, Jhelum and Chenab rivers.”
The PPP leader said that textile manufactures had also gone on a strike, adding that this important sector was the “biggest sector of foreign exchange earnings and providing tens of thousands of jobs to the people of the country”.
He said that the suspended supply of electricity to this sector would affect the country’s exports.
About Nandipur power project, Khosa said that it was being used as a smoke screen to cover up government’s incompetence. pr
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk