Call to generate cheaper hydel power

LAHORE: Electricity/Wapda workers demanded the prime minister to allocate adequate financial resources to Wapda to develop national resources of electricity of 100,000 megawatt cheaper hydel power generation costing Rs1.50 per unit as compared to the high cost of electricity of private thermal power stations Rs16 to 18 per unit.

They held a national conference under the aegis of All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union CBA at Bakhtiar Labour Hall in which they pledged through a resolution to raise the efficiency of largest national electricity public utility by making success the campaign against electricity theft and recovering electricity revenue and providing better services to 25 million consumers all over the country.

They urged upon the management of electricity to get replaced damaged electricity meters, upgrade the overloaded electricity distribution network and provide adequate workforce to meet the rising quantum of work to accomplish this national task.

The conference was addressed by veteran trade union leader Khurshid Ahmed, general secretary of the union who appealed to the workers to perform their work as national service to the nation and raise its productivity to prevent the proposed privatisation of the largest national public utility and declared that the management of Pakistan Electricity Supply Company had promised with the union to sanction for providing adequate monetary incentives to the employees for raising efficiency of the utility on preventing line losses.

Javed Iqbal Baloch (Islamabad), Ch Ghulam Rasool (Multan), Wali-ur-Rehman (Gujranwala), Sarfraz Hundal (Faisalabad), Haji Muhammad Younas, Rana Abdul Shakoor, Muzaffar Mateen, Ch Maqsood Ahmed, Naveed Dogar, Rana Muhammad Akram and other representatives of the union also addressed the conference.

They urged upon the prime minister to allocate adequate financial resources to Wapda to develop national resources of the electricity of 100,000 megawatts of cheaper hydel power generation costing Rs1.50 per unit as compared to the high cost of electricity of private thermal power stations Rs16 to 18 per unit, develop new water dams to meet rising basic need of clean water to 200 million population of Pakistan and develop its agriculture and industry instead of squandering the national wealth upon the import of luxurious goods. They strongly demanded all the political parties to develop national plan of action for achieving economic self-reliance and forge unity to defeat terrorism in the country.