ISLAMABAD, Oct 15: Water and Power Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi has assured that there will be no injustice with provinces in the distribution of water for the Rabi sowing season.
He was speaking at an inter-provincial meeting here on Saturday. Provincial irrigation ministers of Punjab and Sindh and representatives of Balochistan and the NWFP attended the meeting.
Mr Jatoi said the government was committed to providing due share of water to provinces and it had been agreed that there would be no shortage of water for Rabi as adequate storage was available.
Irsa, the minister said, would be in a position to supply due share of water to provinces.
The provinces had been directed to submit their indents to Irsa for the sowing period. The authority had also been told to review these indents and meet full requirements.
The provinces expressed concern over the problems of telemetry system and called for accurate and early restoration of the system.
The meeting discussed the repair plan of Tausna Barrage in detail and unanimously agreed that the repairs should be carried out urgently in the national interest.
The provinces agreed that indenting point for Sindh and Balochistan would be Guddu Barrage instead of Chashma Barrage during the closure of Taunsa Barrage. Any additional losses of water due to re-routing of water would be borne by Punjab.
The minister asked all organizations to fully comply with regulations order issued by Irsa. He advised the provinces and Irsa to plan and communicate well in advance, preferably by 48 hours, so that Wapda could revert to thermal power to adjust and meet the demand.
