Punjab Minister for Agriculture Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh has directed the high ups of the provincial agriculture department to complete small dams’ projects at the earliest to ensure availability of irrigation water in Rawalpindi division. This was stated by him while speaking to the officers of the Agriculture and allied departments, says a spokesman of the department here Tuesday.
He said that performance of the already completed dams should be increased to 100 percent, which at present, is very low at 65 percent. He said total command area of the small dams is 54,000 acres out of which only 24,000 acres is being irrigated under gravity while rest of the area is being irrigated through lift irrigation system. The minister said that small dam project being carried out at a cost of Rs 163 million is in phase of completion and the Punjab government has released Rs 12 million required for the current fiscal this year.
