The Senate’s Standing Committee on Water and Power has recommended the Water and Power Ministry to stop work on import of electricity from India and not to take up this issue at any level. A meeting of the committee was held on Tuesday with Senator Zahid khan in the chair. The body criticized the import of electricity from India. The body said that rather to expedite work on the ongoing hydro projects in the country, the government is focusing on import of power from India that is also facing 30,000 megawatt of electricity shortage. Chairman Zahid Khan said that more than 12000 projects of WAPDA for power production are under progress therefore government should expedite work on these projects as these projects will produce cheap electricity. Senator Shahi Syed said, “We should work for the great national interest and not for the sake of headlines in the newspapers.” Water and Power Additional Secretary Sohail Akbar informed the committee that India is not ready to provide AC power but emphasizing to provide DC power which is more expensive. He said that Asian Development Bank (ADB) is giving financial aid for feasibility study of the project. The committee said that ADB is financing the feasibility of the project then later we have to repay that amount. Why we are putting extra burden on the national kitty just to make headlines of the newspapers, committee observed.
Hope fully this could be right decision but time will tell.
In the mean time we should double our efforts to generate more electricity within the country even if it cost more.
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