Payment of electricity bills in Fata: government to launch smart card system

In a bid to persuade the tribesmen to pay electricity bills, the government is going to launch a smart card system in Federally Administered Tribal Areas [Fata] to ensure collection of power tariff from consumers in tribal areas. Under the proposal, the Tribal Areas Electric Supply Company (TESCO) will launch the smart card initially in Kurram Agency for commercial consumers, which would gradually be extended to other tribal agencies.
The proposal was discussed with parliamentarian belonging to Kurram Agency, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Sajid Hussain Turi during a meeting with Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan Abbasi in Peshawar on Thursday. Giving details of the meeting, Sajid Hussain Turi, Member of the National Assembly from Kurram Agency, told Business Recorder that they discussed the proposal in detail and it was decided that TESCO will launch the smart card for commercial consumers in Kurram Agency initially. He said that the decision to launch the smart card was also taken with the purpose to ensure electricity tariff collection and reducing the power loadshedding in tribal areas where the duration of loadshedding has reached 16 to 18 hours.
Besides ensuring electricity tariff collections through smart cards, he said the government would also upgrade the grid stations and power houses in the tribal areas in order to meet the electricity demands of the people. To a question, he said the smart card will initially been introduced for commercial consumers in Kurram Agency and it would gradually be expanded to rest of the tribal areas as well as to domestic consumers by taking the tribal elders into confidence.
He said the people of tribal areas are responsible citizens of the country and they would play their due role in nation-building at all level. He said the Governor was particularly concerned over the law and order situations in tribal areas and steps would be taken with the support of the tribesmen to restore the peace in the areas. Additionally, he said that a development package would soon be announced for Kurram Agency besides ensuring an early completion of the pending development projects in the area. The MNA said the Governor also took notice of the miseries of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) of the Kurram Agency and it was decided that they would be rehabilitated in their areas. He said under the development package, schools, colleges and hospitals will be upgraded for the social uplift of the tribal people.