A quarter of a billion dinars for the electricity tower to be installed on government lands or to be

[size=52]A quarter of a billion dinars for the electricity tower to be installed on government lands or to be dropped with containers[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad / Tamim Al-Hassan[/size]
[size=45]An alliance between ISIS and a group of clans and personalities controlling agricultural lands is behind the repeated attacks on energy towers, which sometimes cost more than 20 million dinars to repair a single tower.[/size]
[size=45]The organization gains from striking power lines, flooding cities in darkness, smuggling its members, or launching terrorist attacks, while tribes and farmers, by sabotaging the towers, obtain privileges and compensation in amounts sometimes amounting to about 50 billion dinars. The operations of damaging the electricity towers cause losses of thousands of megawatts, which alone may feed a large province such as Basra.[/size]
[size=45]Informed sources in the capital told Al-Mada that "Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi ordered the arrest of a resident of the Rashidiya district, north of Baghdad, for the downing of an energy tower." And an explosive device exploded, at the beginning of this week, on one of the electric power transmission towers in the Rashidiya area in Baghdad, causing great damage to the conveyor tower.[/size]
[size=45]Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi revealed, on Tuesday, the arrest of a number of persons accused of blowing up the electric power transmission towers, stressing that his government will not tolerate those who try to threaten the security of the country.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Kazemi said during the weekly session of his government, that "there are sabotage attempts to blow up the electric power transmission towers, and we were able to arrest a number of them," noting that "this matter will not be tolerated as it affects the Iraqi national security."[/size]
[size=45]Rashidiya farms[/size]
[size=45]It is assumed that a conveyor line will pass to a new power station via Rashidiya, which will provide the capital with more equipment.[/size]
[size=45]MP Amjad Al-Oqabi, a member of the Parliament’s Energy Committee, says to Al-Mada that "Basmajah's investment station will add 1500 megawatts to the electrical system, but the problem is in Rashidiya farms." The number added to the electric power is greater than half of Wasit’s need, which needs 540 megawatts, and about most of Basra’s needs, which is one of the largest cities in Iraq, which needs 2,100 megawatts.[/size]
[size=45]The station (Basmajah) has completed all its work while it is awaiting completion of transmission lines and towers. "The new equipment is supposed to be added in the summer, but some residents are acting selfishly," Al-Uqabi added.[/size]
[size=45]But the matter in Rashidiya and other areas seems to be greater than a popular refusal, as informed sources indicate that there is "blackmail" of the government in obtaining compensation in exchange for permitting the development of power towers.[/size]
[size=45]The largest compensation value[/size]
[size=45]In the years between 2006 and 2010, a senior official in the state received compensation amounting to about 50 billion dinars, due to the passage of power towers in lands controlled by him and his relatives on the outskirts of Baghdad.[/size]
[size=45]According to leaks that reached (Al-Mada), the total value of the lands that the towers passed through does not exceed "one billion dinars," in the best case.[/size]
[size=45]The official's clan has great influence in the state, and some of them have wide links with armed factions.[/size]
[size=45]And the game of "government blackmail" because of energy projects began to increase, as informed sources confirm that "most of the towers that are located in remote areas or pass on agricultural lands are subject to bargaining."[/size]
[size=45]Government blackmail[/size]
[size=45]Some of the nearby residents are requesting "appointments for members of his family" in exchange for protecting the tower, despite the presence of the tower in areas belonging to the state![/size]
[size=45]The source adds that "compensation for pure agricultural lands (Tabu), in which towers are installed, amount to 250 million dinars on a single tower, while compensation is less in the lands of contracts."[/size]
[size=45]The source continues that, sometimes, the Ministry of Electricity is forced to "divert the path of erecting the towers in order to avoid entering the pure agricultural lands to the leased contracts to reduce the amount of compensation."[/size]
[size=45]It is assumed that agricultural contracts are lands belonging to the state granted to people for the purpose of agriculture and not acquisition.[/size]
[size=45]Usually, the Ministry of Electricity secures power towers through the security forces, but the "expansion of blackmail" and blowing up the towers "forces the government" to accept the deal with the tribes or farmers.[/size]
[size=45]At the beginning of this year, the governor of Anbar, Ali Farhan al-Dulaimi, confirmed the existence of a security agreement to protect the electric power towers.[/size]
[size=45]The various sabotage operations that took place in western Anbar targeted power transmission towers, believed to be behind "ISIS" or competition between some tribes to obtain concessions.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Dulaimi said in a statement to the official agency, last December, that “it was agreed with the tribes, the popular mobilization and the army to conduct continuous security patrols with the line that carries electricity,” calling on “the energy police to take their role despite the fact that their capabilities are not sufficient to provide protection in depth. the desert". And that "the long distance of the transmission line of electric power, which extends from 100 to 150 km."[/size]
[size=45]Officials in Anbar accused clans and some influential people of bringing down the towers due to "competition" for protection contracts, a narrative that may apply to events that took place in Jurf al-Sakhar and an earlier attack in Jalawla that targeted energy towers.[/size]
[size=45]Subversion groups[/size]
[size=45]Yahya Rasool, the government's military spokesman, used the phrase "outlaw groups" to describe those responsible for the downing of the Jurf al-Sakhr towers, according to what local media reported. The sounds of explosions were heard in Al-Musayyib district, near Al-Jarf, last January, while the government said that it was an attack with “devices” against the energy towers. It coincided with similar attacks that took place in other areas in the north of Baghdad, which caused the collapse of electricity towers in 3 provinces: Anbar, Diyala, and Kirkuk. Officials believe that "ISIS" is carrying out acts of sabotage to ensure that its attacks are carried out in "dark cities" after disrupting the electric power, as well as smuggling its elements in those airspace.[/size]
[size=45]On Tuesday evening, "subversive groups", according to what Amjad Al-Oqabi, a member of the Energy Committee in Parliament, described, caused the loss of nearly 250 megawatts to Iraq, by blowing up towers in Diyala.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Oqabi indicated that "repairing one tower requires one day, but it costs between 6 million and 25 million dinars, depending on the size of the damage."[/size]
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