Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO) has issued a list of defaulting departments which have to clear energy bills worth millions of rupees and served notices upon them to clear their dues within a week.
According to the report issued by FESCO Deputy Director Public Relations Muhammad Tahir Sheikh, five federal and 16 provinncial departments owed Rs 280 million to the power distribution company in terms of unpaid electricity bills.
Pakistan Railways owes to the FESCO Rs 22.9 million, SNGPL Rs 1.3 million, PTCL Rs 1.2 million, Defence Department 14 million, National Drainage Programme Rs 102 million, Punjab Irrigation and Power Department, Rs 24.9, Punjab Livestock and Dairy Department, Rs 1.2 million, Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), Rs 93 million, Punjab Police, Rs 9.6 million, DHQ Hospital Jhang, Rs 1 million and Forest Department, Rs 91 million.
In addition to that many of the tehsil muncipal administrations (TMAs) have not paid their electricity bills despite huge funds available with them. These included TMA Chiniot, Rs 3.6 million, TMA Sargodha, Rs 15.9 million, TMA Khushab, Rs 2.3 million, TMA Mianwali, Rs 1.6 million, TMA Essa Khel, Rs 22.3 million, TMA Madina Town, Faisalabad, Rs 1.5 million, and TMA Iqbal Town, Faisalabad, Rs 2.1 million.
According to the FESCO spokesman, Mohammad Tahir Sheikh, these outstanding figures are computed up to April 30, 2011. He said that payment advice along with disconnection orders have already been issued to all these federal and provincial departments for the immediate settlement of the long-outstanding dues.
Last month, FESCO disconnected electricity supply to WASA, the highest defaulter (Rs 93 million), but after negotiations with the authorities and keeping in view the public miseries arising out of the situation, FESCO restored their connection. The WASA authorities, however, continued to default and did not honour their commitment of settling the payments.
It is pertinent to mention here that last month Federal Water and Power Minister Syed Naveed Qamar called an emergency meeting of Director General PEPCO and DGs of all distribution companies to review the power crisis and urged their heads to recover the massive amount of Rs 85 billion from the defaulters. However, his attention was not drawn to the embarrassing fact that the government departments were the major players in the default game.
UAF LAUNCHES INNOVATIVE THRESHER: The University of Agriculture Faisalabad has redeveloped a wheat thresher by using the reverse engineering process.
The modified version has brought down the per unit production cost up to Rs 50,000 due to reduction of 300 kilograms iron parts used in the manufacturing. The most valuable benefit of the new innovation is that it also saves 1.5 liter of fuel per hour and works with improved efficiency. The university has also redeveloped a wheat chopper, reducing the prices to Rs 75,000 and decreasing the weight of it 500 kilograms. The thresher and chopper aim at bringing the machines at par with international standards and making it affordable for a common farmer.
It was revealed at the inaugural ceremony of the machines at the Postgraduate Agricultural Research Station (PARS), UAF. Faculty of Agriculture Dean Prof Dr Muhammad Ashfaq was the chief guest while Faculty of Agriculture Engineering and Technology Dean Prof Dr Rai Niaz and Pakistan Agricultural Machinery and Implements Manufacturers Association Chairman Amjad Ali Amjad and Dr Manzoor Ahmed Ch were also present.
Prof Dr Muhammad Iqbal Principal Investigator (PI) and Muhammad Azam Khan, co-PI, from the university along his team carried out the work under the project, Skill Development Inverse Engineering Agri Machinery, UAF.
Addressing the gathering, Prof Dr Ashfaq congratulated the researches and hoped the researchers would put in their best efforts to give the nation gifts of more state-of-the-art technology. He said the nation was facing challenges and it was prerequisite to put our full attention to the agriculture to expedite the process of development. Prof Dr Rai Niaz lauded the efforts made by the researchers and urged the participants to do more on the horizon of agriculture for the development of the country.
HAKIM ZARDARI’S DEATH
CONDOLED: PPP senior leader and FESCO Board of Directors (BOD) Chairman Nadim Aftab Sindhu has expressed deep sense of sorrow and grief over the sad demise of Hakim Ali Zardari, the father of President Asif Ali Zardari. In a condolence meeting, which was also attended by Rana Mushtaq Ahmed, president PPP Faisalabad City, Malik Asghar Ali Qaiser, special advisor to Ministry of Interior, and the directors of FESCO BOD, fateha was offered for the deceased.
Meanwhile, Ghayebana funeral prayer for the deceased was held at Kotwali Road PPP office which was attended by Kamaran Dar, former textile minister Farooq Saeed Khan, Mian Nayyar Dar, Mehar Abdur Rasheed, Chaudhary Badar-ud-Din, Haji Ismail Seela, Chaudhary Muhammad Hussain, Raja Safdar, Malik Zafar Iqbal Tahir, Zakaria Dar, Saeed Sajid, Haji Afzal Titanic, Sagheer Awan and a large number of the party workers.