December 27, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 22, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

ISLAMABAD, Dec 26: The government is expected to revise priorities on the development of irrigation projects except those already in progress, informed sources told Dawn.

Federal Minister for Water and Power, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, was informed by some attached departments of his ministry and provincial authorities that the Wapda had taken a solo flight in the finalization of multi-billion dollar “Vision-2025 Programme”, without taking into account the provincial aspirations.

A senior government official said that provincial authorities, particularly in Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan, had raised concern over some of the projects at the time of their inclusion in the programme but Wapda did not inform the president about their views.

Aftab Sherpao, who served as NWFP chief minister twice, too had objections over some of the projects in the NWFP and northern areas and had told a meeting recently that irrigation projects should be reviewed.

The priority of these projects should be revised keeping in mind the provincial requirements and aspirations, and after having advice from the technical experts, the minister was quoted as saying.

He, however, maintained that projects which have already been launched should not be disturbed and be completed at the earliest without any hindrance, the official said.

The provincial authorities plead that they had their own priority projects that did not figure in the Wapda’s 25-year planning, and some unnecessary or even projects have been prioritized that were harmful to provincial interests.

An effort would be made to prepare a consensus strategy of priority projects through active consultation of the donors - since they would be providing assistance, besides representatives of investor community, farmers, flood commission, Indus river system authority, Wapda, provincial governments and engineering organizations.

This will ensure that the strategy has a wide ranging ownership and acceptability, the official said.

To a question, he said this did not mean that Vision-2025 programme has been disowned by the government, and added that perhaps majority of these projects would remain intact and some controversial projects might be put on the back-burner or simply ignored.

The process of consultation, said these sources, was expected to be started by mid of next month for a consensus on all major irrigation and hydel power projects.