PM asks to prepare list of Corrupt officers in Electricity distribution companies

Islamabad: The Prime Minister directed the Power Division to submit a comprehensive report of the most essential staff vacancies in DESCOs in the upcoming Cabinet meeting and make the recruitment process transparent and in line with international best practices.

According to sources, a federal cabinet meeting was held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, in which the federal cabinet was given a detailed briefing on power theft, line losses and a comprehensive strategy to reduce these losses by the power division. And data on power theft, line losses, blackouts and recovery in electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) were also briefed on the most loss-making feeders and obstacles to recovery from them. Along with this, the methods and suggestions for solving these problems were also told.

The Prime Minister directed the Power Division to submit a comprehensive report on the most essential staff vacancies in DISCOs in the upcoming Cabinet meeting and emphasized that the recruitment process should be transparent and in line with international best practices. Do it.

In order to improve the performance of electricity distribution companies, the Prime Minister directed that a list of corrupt officers should be compiled in these companies and at the same time officers with good reputation should be appointed to important positions so that the performance of these companies can be improved. be reduced and better services can be provided to the public.

He directed that such officers should not only be recognized but should also be rewarded for their good performance.

The federal cabinet gave in-principle approval to extend the project of installation of advanced meters in Islamabad to other parts of the country and also to install advanced meters on transformers to reduce line losses.

Describing the average of 7 percent line losses as unsatisfactory, the Prime Minister immediately ordered a comprehensive plan to reduce them step by step according to the rate of line losses prevailing at the international level and to prepare recommendations for reform measures in the electricity distribution companies. A committee was established under the chairmanship of Defense Minister Khawaja Asif.

According to the report, Federal Minister for Commerce and Production Syed Naveed Qamar, Minister for Electricity Engineer Khuram Dastgir Khan, Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Shazia Murri, Minister of State for Petroleum Dr. Mossadegh Malik, Minister for Science and Technology Agha Hasan Baloch, Minister for Housing Maulana Abdul Wasi, Adviser to Prime Minister Engineer Amir Makam and Secretary Power will join.

The committee will prepare a comprehensive action plan and submit it to the cabinet after consultation within two weeks. The federal cabinet approved measures to promote the use of low-cost solar energy as an alternative to expensive imported fuel across the country on the recommendation of the Power Division. These measures include running existing power plants with solar energy during daytime hours instead of using expensive imported fuel, allowing small-scale local private investors to install small scale solar power plants on KV feeders in rural areas, and installing solar power plants on government buildings. Involves transferring energy.

The Federal Cabinet approved the following decisions taken by the Economic Coordination Committee on October 17 on the recommendation of the Cabinet Division, Technical Supplementary Grant of Rs.17 billion for the financial year 2022-23 to recover lakhs of acres of ready crops from the recent devastating floods. Keeping in view the disaster and the possible shortage of local seeds, the federal cabinet decided to ensure the supply of seeds to the farmers for the upcoming wheat crop in collaboration with the provinces. For this, the provinces and the federal government will ensure the provision of funds with a contribution of 50 percent.

In this regard, the ECC approved a supplementary grant of Rs 3.2 billion to NDMA for the procurement of wheat seeds and distribution to the districts identified by the provinces, which the cabinet approved. The procurement of seed for the flood-affected areas for the sowing of the wheat crop has been entrusted to the NDMA which will ensure the completion of the process before the sowing of the next crop. Also issued instructions to continue without stopping.