Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah has praised the work performance of Sindh Irrigation Department and has ruled out the impression in some circles about the slow pace of development work by the Sindh Government and said he himself and different monitoring organisations are regularly monitoring the pace and quality of development works for which as many as Rs 185 billion are being spent during financing year 2013-14 to benefit the people.
This he observed while presiding over the meeting to examine & evaluate the work performance of Sindh Irrigation Department held at CM House Karachi here on Thursday. Additional Chief Secretary Development Arif Ahmed Khan, Secretary to CM Rai Sikandar, Secretary Sindh Irrigation Department Babar Afendi, Chief Engineer Sukkur Barrage Ahmed Junaid Memon, Chief Engineer Kotri Salman Memon, Chief Engineer Development Dhano Mal, MD SIDA Ahsan Leghari, DG Monitoring Syed Imtiaz Shah and other officers attended the meeting.
The Secretary Irrigation while briefing the meeting about the work performance, informed that as many as 219 different development schemes including 112 old/ongoing and 107 new schemes which included in this year were under execution of his department at total cost of Rs 57.6 billion. He said that out of this total estimated cost annual allocation of Rs 12 billion has been earmarked in this financial year 2013-14 budget out of which Rs 7 billion have been released and Rs 6 billion of this released amount have been utilised till December 31, 2013. He said that 41 ongoing development schemes have been completed against targeted number of 43 by December 31, 2013 while remaining two are also completed but only power connection from HESCO is remained. He assured that other 19 schemes would be successfully completed within the stipulated period of 30th June 2014. He said that his department has achieved 92 percent funds utilisation progress for ongoing schemes and 97 percent for new schemes. The Chief Minister Sindh while praising the performance of the Sindh Irrigation Department said that he was regularly monitoring the development works by himself, through Chief Minister’s Inspection team, monitoring teams of planning & development department and even getting feedback from the public representatives and party workers. He said that officers of Administrative department were being continuously persuaded to remain in field, complete the qualitative development work within stipulated period and avoid the price escalation and deprivation of common man from their basic rights and benefits. The Chief Minister Sindh while quoting the record of the Sindh Government made it clear, that a total development outlay of Rs 185 billion including Rs 165 billion for provincial and Rs 20 billion for Distt development schemes has been earmarked in current financing year 2013-14. He said that out of this total outlay, an amount of Rs 70 billion have been released to different Administrative department’s for implementation on the development schemes and out of this Rs 70 billion’s released amount more than Rs 40 billion have been utilised till December 31,2013 where as the extensive work on the development schemes was continue without any break as such the overall utilisation of development funds is about 60 percent till date.
The Chief Minister Sindh also took serious notice of contamination of Manchar Lake and directed the Secretary Irrigation to evolve such a strategy so that this historical and rich heritage of Sindh could be rehabilitated, protected permanently and made more beneficial especially for fisher community and common man in the areas. The Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah directed the Secretary Irrigation to complete the paper work and submit this plan to him so that same could be got implemented from the federal government. The Chief Minister Sindh also expressed his apprehensions over the delay in completion of RBOD Project which according to him is adding the problems of pollution for the people. The Chief Minister stressed upon the Federal Government for expediting the work of the RBOD-II project so that miseries of the local people and degration of the land and Manchar Lake could be averted.-PR
