LAHORE: The federal government will soon vet the laws governing the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) to award judicial powers to the officials for taking action against those involved in electricity theft.

The distribution companies (Discos) will be in a position to establish their own stations like those of the police and the FIA to arrest the power thieves, register FIRs and get the suspects tried and penalised through courts.

`We already have our own (Wapda) laws that allow us to have judicial magistrates, establish stations like those of the FIA, police,Anti-Corruption Department etc and proceed sternly against the power thieves. At the moment we just need to vet these laws,` State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali said. He was responding to various questions during a media talk after he presided over a meeting of senior ofHcers of the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) here on Tuesday.

Since Discos have been facing resistance from power thieves, the situation forced a top Lesco official to prepare a proposal for the Punjab police chief to initially hand over two police stations to the company to help it fight the scourge of power theft. There are many instances wherein power thieves manhandle and injure the raiding team; in one such incident, an SDO suffered injuries when a PML-N councillor in Chah Meeran attackedhimafterateamlaunched an operation.

The minister expressed sorrowover suchincidentsincluding the one in Faisalabad in which a ruling party MPA was involved. `I thank Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif who took notice of the incident in Chah Meeran by getting the councilor arrested.

Similarly, action should be taken against the Faisalabad MPA for thrashing a Fesco official,` he said.

As for power distribution system and constraints, he said during last summer 4,000 transformers in the Lesco service areas alone broke down (burnt) due to overloaded system. Therefore, to improve capacity of the system, Lesco has replaced 16 transformers of 26MVA. Likewise, 29 new 132kV grid stations were built and 65 others upgraded to the capacity of 132kV. Moreover, 274km long transmission lines were also replaced with new ones, he claimed.

Mr Ali said the country is currently facing a shortfall of 3,600 to3,700MW and it include d 1,000MW that was not being added to the national grid by the IPPs etc due to maintenance work. He said the Bhikki RLNG-fired and Nandipur power plants added 596MW and 136MW to the national grid on Tuesday.

`Nandipur is being converted on R LNG while the Bhil(lci will start adding 1,200MW once it formally starts functioning in December in combine cycle mode. RLNG-fired Havaili Bahadur Shah and Baloki will also start generation in June or July. Next month we will also start receiving 350MW from Chashma Nuclear power plant,` he claimed.

He said he had directed the Lesco management not to serve detection bills to the consumers over the issue of replacement of defective meters.

The minister criticised PPP leader Maula Bakhsh Chandio who, he alleged, was propagating against the government.