BADIN, Nov 28: Federal Minister of State for Agriculture and Livestock Mohammad Ali Malkani has expressed displeasure over slow pace of work on lining of watercourses in Badin and Thatta districts. At a meeting with farmers and officials of the districts and water management department, the minister asked them to complete the lining of watercourses under the national programme by December this year.

He said Rs66 billion were allocated for the president’s programme for improvement of watercourses in the country. He said Rs20 to 22 billion would be utilized to improve 29,000 watercourses in Sindh within the next five years.

Mr Malkani said the funds would be spent by consulting the farmer community and not the bureaucrats. He warned the officials concerned to complete the watercourses on time and directed them to expedite the work as no excuse would be tolerated.

The minister said the additional funds of Rs3.3 billion, allocated by the federal government, would be spent on the water management programme in Sindh.

The project director of the federal monitoring unit, Nasir Mehmood, asked the farmers to cooperate with the officials in lining the watercourses.

Representatives of the Abadgar Association expressed concern over slow pace of lining of watercourses and said that two separate but parallel projects of watercourse lining were initiated to improve the supply of irrigation water at the farm level but they have not been completed.

They alleged that lack of coordination among executing agencies, unfavourable policies and a difficult procedure for approval of work was causing the delay.

Some of the land owners said that lining of 10,000 watercourses per year could ensure success of the project.