APTMA rejects loadshedding schedule

RECORDER REPORT

MULTAN: ‘We have rejected the loadshedding schedule announced for winter gas supply and power describing it unjust and unfair,’ All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) South Punjab chapter incharge Muhammad Anees Khawaja has expressed concern over massive unannounced power loadshedding of up to 14 hours a day and announced to launch protest if energy issue was not resolved within a week.

Talking to journalists here on Sunday he said that entire energy supply system was collapsed due to recklessness of the policy makers and now industry which exporting goods worth $ 14 billion was sinking and millions of workers jobless due to closure of industry.

M Anees Khawaja demanded the federal government to take steps to meet the scarcity of gas and electricity in the country and save the industry from a total collapse. Anees Khawaja said that a textile mill could only be viable if it was operational 24/7 and 365 days a year. Otherwise, he said it became unviable to sustain production, if there were power breakdowns for six to 14 hours a day.

He said submissions were made to the President Asif Ali Zardari in a meeting, who directed the Ministry for Water and Power to ensure exemption from loadshedding to textile industry. This arrangement could, however, only lasted for a few weeks and this duration has been increased now.

Khawaja said the government had withdrawn the exemption from loadshedding to the textile industry on independent feeders and suspended power supply to the ‘most efficient’ industry during high demand period. Since last one week, industry is being forced to endure loadshedding like domestic consumers for long durations spanning 6-14 hours a day.

He said Discos were intentionally violating the decision of the cabinet and blaming the NTDC for long spells of power outages. The NTDC officials, on the other hand, are of the view that how they can avoid power supply to a specific area after keeping functional the grid station of that area.

He urged the government to act immediately and ensure exemption from loadshedding to the textile industry or at least follow the announced mandatory loadshedding until full exemption was ensured. This would inflict a loss of one billion rupees daily in export earnings and value addition. He said the fact of the matter is mismanagement galore. Resultant upon this failure to manage, more than 300 industrial units and over 1.5 million textile workers would be affected due to shortage of basic fuel creating industrial unrest, he said. He further demanded restricting the CNG usage exclusively to the public transport in order to provide genuine relief to the masses.