Up to 54 per cent of villages in province without electricity, Sindh Assembly told

Up to 54 per cent of the villages in the province are without electricity, the Sindh Assembly was informed on Wednesday. The disclosure to this effect was made by Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh as he responded to oral and written queries of concerned lawmakers during the question hour of the session. Opposition MPA of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Syed Abdul Rasheed remarked in the House that the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) should tell about its performance during its rule continuing since the past 15 years after it had come to surface that up to 54 per cent rural population of the province was without electricity.

The energy minister informed the House that it was the desire of the Sindh government that every village in the province was provided electricity. He informed the assembly that 8,572 villages in the province had been electrified during the PPP’s rule in Sindh. He claimed that all the villages of the province that had the facility of electricity were actually electrified during the PPP’s regime in Sindh.The energy minister, however, emphasised that a proper survey should be conducted to ascertain the exact number of villages without electricity in the province. He told the House that the Board of Revenue had been approached for the purpose.

He informed the concerned legislators that the Sindh government had been using the option of solar power for electrifying off-grid rural areas. He added that hopefully, the issue of power supply in the province would be resolved to a great extent next year. Shaikh said the option of solar energy was being availed for the rural areas far away from the grid and after winning the forthcoming general elections, the PPP would continue with its drive to provide electricity to the off-grid villages. He said the Thar coal reserves had the potential to provide electricity to the entire country through the national grid.

Meanwhile, speaking on his call-attention notice on the law and order situation in Sindh, an opposition legislator of the Grand Democratic Alliance, Nand Kumar Goklani, said that armed bandits had been kidnapping innocent people in the province without any fear of the law.

He remarked that it seemed bandits had been ruling in the province. He claimed that at present, up to 40 people had been kidnapped in the province and kidnappings for ransom had been happening on a daily basis.The energy minister responded in the House that an operation against the armed dacoits had been under way in his native district of Shikarpur. He claimed that resultantly, the law and order situation had improved in the past two months. Shaikh said a similar operation had been under way against the dacoits in the border region of Punjab. He claimed that up to 99 persons of the 116 abductees in the province had been recovered.