He said that the government has dues clearance certificates to present in the Sindh Assembly's next sitting. He regretted the 'worst' ever electricity cuts being carried out in all districts of Sindh. In the severe hot weather, the Sindh government cannot leave the public at the mercy of Wapda.
The government plans to find a solution to soaring electricity load and make an effort to provide power to the public from its resources, he told the legislators, saying that "we are making efforts to scale down the power cuts duration by at least seven hours a day," from existing 20 hours. The resolution shows serious concerns over the power outages in Sindh, saying that there are areas where electricity load shedding is carried out up to 20 hours a day.
The continuing prolonged power cuts have tormented the public amid soaring temperature. It urged the government to start power supplies from electricity generating units built under the new captive power plants to the public to ease the difficulty. Syed Murad Ali Shah said that the province is undergoing maximum temperature of the year while holy month of Ramzan is about couple of weeks ahead; therefore, the Sindh government is going to mobilise its resources to meet the rising electricity demand. He said that Sindh government will distribute its own generated electricity to Dadu, Shikarpur and other districts and will not transmit into the national grid.
He also announced that Sindh government with the approval of cabinet will subsidise its produced electricity. PML-F's Nusrat Sehar Abbasi asked the government to pay bills to Wapda on time and should not complain without any reasons. Except the PML-F, all other parties voted the resolution to adopt it with a majority vote. However, Speaker, Agha Siraj Durrani ruled that the resolution was passed unanimously. The assembly will now meet on Thursday morning.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017