Joint strategy to be devised to curb power theft: CM

NOWSHERA: Vowing to devise joint strategy to curb power theft, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak Sunday said that the federal government had agreed to pay Khyber Pakhtunkhwa its share from the annual net hydel-generation profits and also arrears.
Talking to reporters here on Sunday, Pervez Khattak said the federal government would pay the province Rs17billion as its share from net hydel profits and Rs112 billion arrears.“The protest staged by the members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was our constitutional and democratic right,” he said. He added that his government would not hesitate to take any constitutional step to safeguard the rights of his people and province.
He claimed that a major breakthrough was achieved when the federal government accepted their demand of supplying 1,400-megawatt electricity to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.“Loadshedding would decrease by 50 percent when Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is provided its full share of electricity,” he maintained.
He said that federal and provincial governments would devise a joint strategy against power theft.Pervez Khattak said that federal government accepted his recommendation of generating electricity from the surplus gas and construction of 13 dams in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“The federal government would allocate handsome amount for mega projects in the province under the Public Sector Development Programme,” he claimed. Commenting on the alleged pre-poll rigging in the local government elections, he said that leaders of certain political parties, who are doubtful about their party’s candidates’ victory, were making allegation.Pervez Khattak said that no new projects were being announced but work on the ongoing projects would not be stopped.