WAPDA Comes Under Fire In KP PA Over Load Shedding

(@FahadShabbir)

WAPDA comes under fire in KP PA over load shedding

Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) was criticized by both the treasury and the Opposition benches in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Friday for conducting excessive and unscheduled load shedding

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Jul, 2021 ) :Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) was criticized by both the treasury and the Opposition benches in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Friday for conducting excessive and unscheduled load shedding.

The Provincial Assembly resumed its proceeding with Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani in the Chair.

Opening the debate, the Members called for constitution of a House Committee to help resolve electricity related problems of the province.

The issue was raised by the Opposition legislator Khushdil Khan Advocate of Awami National Party through a point of order, who said that the issue of electricity and gas load shedding had become worse and proposed formation of a House Committee to meet the Prime Minister and resolve the issue.

Participating in the debate, Special Assistant to KP CM on Industries and Commerce, Abdul Karim Khan said that the province was supplied 1150MW electricity during peak hours. He said that the provincial government was working on the construction of 11 big and 14 small industrial estates, saying that the existing grid stations were already overloaded and called for construction of more grid stations.

Provincial Minister for Housing, Amjad Ali Khan and PTI MPA Pakhtun Yar Khan also called for granting relief to the people from load shedding and called for the constitution of House Committee to resolve the issue.

In response to the speeches of the treasury and the Opposition legislators, Provincial Minister for Labour and Culture, Shaukat Ali Yousafzai said that power and gas load shedding were big issues faced by the country. He said that previous rulers signed agreements for electricity generation from oil and coal that had triggered increase in power tariff.

He said, the previous governments should have constructed dams for generation of hydel power. He said that the country required hydel energy and Prime Minister Imran Khan has started work on Bhasha and Mohmand Dams to resolve the problem of load shedding.

Shaukat Ali Yousafzai said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had huge potential of hydel power and the provincial government was working on various projects to address the issue.

He said that PTI would come into power for another period of five years and would resolve these issues.