Gilani wants full enforcement of power saving plans

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

* Prime minister expresses satisfaction on ‘visible improvement’ in power situation

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Monday expressed satisfaction on “visible improvement” in the country’s power situation and reiterated his government’s resolve to mitigate load shedding in the shortest possible time.

Addressing the review meeting on energy at the PM Secretariat, he commended support and constant follow up by the chief ministers to implement the aggressive conservation measures taken at the last meeting to make the campaign a success. Gilani particularly thanked the Punjab chief minister for assuming a lead role in the campaign in his province.

However, he warned against any slackness towards full enforcement of the measures saying that in such a case the gains made so far would quickly erode. The PM directed the ministries of water & power, finance, petroleum & natural resources and all provincial governments to ensure that the measures were enforced.

Gilani said the government believed in interactive and collective wisdom of all stakeholders and was following the policy of mutual consultation and a consensus approach to addressing national issues.

He apprised the review meeting that NEPRA had recently approved an upfront tariff of 9.28 cents per unit for co-generation projects of the sugar industry.

The PM said according to his feedback, unscheduled load shedding had almost been eliminated and there had also been some relief to consumers in scheduled load shedding.

Gilani reiterated that industry and agriculture remained the government’s first priority and that load shedding schedules, where necessary, were being enforced in consultation with the representatives of the chambers of commerce and industry.

“It is for the first time ever that energy conservation efforts have been undertaken by the government in a systematic and well coordinated way,” he said, adding that energy conservation was a continuous and ongoing activity. He said that while there might be success in some areas, there was still much to be done to rid the nation of power outages.

The PM pointed out gaps in implementation in some areas and mentioned that markets and shopping centres in many cities continued to remain open after 8pm and notified that timings for marriage halls were not being enforced completely.

He asked the provincial governments to re-double their efforts for full implementation of the decisions of the energy summit.

He also appealed to businessmen, traders and other segments of society to come forward and extend their support for the conservation measures in the greater interest of the nation. app