The Senate was informed Thursday that “Solar Auto Rickshaw” technology has successfully been developed indigenously to help overcome acute shortage of energy and rising cost of fuel.
Minister for Science and Technology Mir Changez Khan Jamali told the House in a written reply during question hour that M/s United Services International Group (USIG) of Lahore and Pakistan Institute of Technology for Minerals and Advance Engineering Materials Lahore have developed the technology through collaborative research.
He said the Rickshaw is now in operative position using Solar Energy instead of petrol or CNG. The cost of one Solar Auto Rickshaw is about two hundred and thirty thousand rupee which can be covered in one year. Its normal speed is fifty to seventy kilometer per hour.
The solar rickshaw operates on five solar panels along with five batteries and driven by one DC Motor.
Minister of State for Production Khawaja Sheraz Mahmood told the house that Pakistan Steel suffered huge losses of about 71 billion rupees during the last four years.
He said as per audit reports the losses occurred due to wrong doings in the purchase of raw material and higher freight rates; decrease in sales; high prices of imported raw material and low capacity utilization.
He said the Government has approved a bailout package for revival and revitalization of Mills. He said the Board of Directors of the Mills approved the capacity utilization of 63% for the current financial year as against just 19% last year and 36% the year before.
The Minister of State said public sector enterprises are run by Board of Directors and they should be summoned by the concerned committee of the House to explain their position on losses being incurred. On this, the chair referred the question by Abdul Haseeb Khan on the subject to the Standing Committee for consideration and report.
Minister of State for National Food Security and Research Muhammad Moazzam Ali Khan Jatoi told the House the around fifty-eight percent of the country’s population was food insecure.
He said a National Zero Hunger Programme has been prepared for approval by the Prime Minister. He said Internally Displaced Persons form an integral part of the proposed Zero Hunger Programme. He said at the request of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and World Food Programme, the Ministry has proposed that fifty thousand tons of wheat out of PASSCO’s reserves may be donated to the WFP for IDPs. The cost of over 1.5 billion rupees will be picked up by the Federal Government.
