- Committee recommends 30% employment quota for victims of Tarbela, Ghazi Brotha and Warsak dams
The National Assembly’s Standing Committee of the Ministry of Human Rights has expressed serious concerns over the power supply situation and compensation to victims of various dams.
The meeting of the standing committee was held on Tuesday at the Briefing Hall of the Tarbela Dam Rest House in Tarbela with MNA Babar Nawaz as head. The PESCO director informed the committee that the Chief Executive Officer could not attend the meeting due to official engagements in Lahore and he would be responsible to accept the decision of the committee.
The committee was assured to implement the recommendation to minimize load-shedding from four to six hours. The committee was also assured by the dam’s general manager to implement on T-5 and the policy which will be prepared by the committee upon which the visiting members agreed and recommended that 30% quota of employments to the victims of the Tarbela Dam, Ghazi Brotha and Warsak Dam and 70% to the local people of the areas concerned be given.
The committee also clarified that there were three villages i.e. Hamlet Ghazi, 25 towns of Khalabat and Kangra Colony consisting of 13000 houses. Some are situated in hills, Soo Thathoo and in the areas of Punjab. The committee recommended that a summary should be prepared by the general manager on Tarbela and Warsak victims and work on it promptly to resolve the issues.
The committee dissatisfied on the reply of the WAPDA and expressed its displeasure on the non-provision of basic facilities like electricity, load-shedding from 16 to 18 hours in the Hamlet Colony, non-provision of jobs to the local people of Haripur, provision of only 10 to 15 voltage of electricity in upper Tanaawal, removal of electric metres from Warsak and submission of electric bills amounting to Rs 20,00000/- to the people on previous metres which destroyed in flood and non-installation of new electric metres to the victims of Warsak Dam Colony and its other areas.
A lawmaker expressed displeasure on submission of electric bills of the factories by PESCO amounting to Rs 20,00,000/- to those people who have not provided any electric meters. He suggested that electric metres should be provided to the victims and action be taken against the officials who receive big amounts from the factory owners.
The chief finance officer of the Water and Power assured the committee to register an FIR against the defaulters if someone is found involved in corruption. The committee recommended that record of industries bills and metre readings of all the consumers since the year 2014 to onward be provided to the lawmaker within 15 days and record to the committee in its next meeting so that blame could be proved or cleared.
The committee also suggested to meet the secretary and the prime-minister and show the bills amounting to Rs 20,00,000/-. The committee was informed on a query for supply of new electricity line from Tarbela Dam to the people of Haripur that it is the line of NTDC so network of NTDC will be observed due to voltage issue. NTDC will be called in the next meeting of the committee to resolve the issue of supply of electricity to Haripur.
The committee also recommended the Ministry of Water and Power and Tarbela authority to provide basic facilities of sewerage, drinking water, roads and streets to the dam victims in Khalabat, Hamlet Ghazi and Kangra in accordance with the 1968-69 policy.
The meeting was attended by MNAs Asiya Naz Tanoli, Zahra Wadood Fatemi, Amra Khan, Dr Shazia Sobia, Musarat Rafique Mahesar, Sajid Nawaz and senior officers from the Ministry of Human Rights, Ministry of Water and Power and its attached department.