May 12, 2006	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 13, 1427

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LAHORE, May 11: The Punjab government says it is totally unjustified to hold the provincial governments responsible for increase in sugar price.

In a statement on Thursday, an official spokesman said that it had been acknowledged at every level that the sugar price hike was caused by international factors and rising demand at the local level.

“As far as the Punjab government is concerned, it is a fact that it has fulfilled all its responsibilities efficiently, right from the timely payment to cultivators to the smooth and sufficient supply of sugar from mills to the market.”

The spokesman claimed that it was because of the official steps that almost 100 per cent payments had been made to the growers in the province besides the easy availability of sugar in the market.

“The Public Accounts Committee has not been shown the true picture and hence its report is based on wrong information provided by certain members of the opposition. It is lamentable that the opposition members of the committee, instead of playing an impartial and positive role on national issues, are trying to use this august platform for the achievement of their political interests,” he concluded.

IRSA CHIEF: The Indus River System Authority is a federal body and it must act as such, Punjab Irrigation Minister Aamer Sultan Cheema said here on Thursday.

Talking to Irsa chairman Shafqat Masood here at a meeting, he said the authority must issue facts and figures independent of any political interest, otherwise its standing would suffer an irreparable loss.

“The body must resist federal or provincial pressure to rig its figures about water because any rigging is tantamount to putting the country’s economy at risk,” he said.

From April 1 to May 10, the Punjab has not received full share of water even for a single day. The Punjab demanded 745,000 cusecs of water during first 10 days of April, but it got only 400,202 cusec.

From April 11 to 20th, its requirement was 10.49 million cusec feet and it got only 503,200 cusec. And in the last ten-daily (April 20 to 30), the Punjab required 1.38 million cusec water and got only 612,200 cusec.

Despite these figures, the minister said, Irsa was busy telling people that water availability was totally normal. He said Punjab, which used to open its non-perennial canals on April 15, was only able to open some of them at May 5, and the rest of them were still closed.

He said there had been water shortages earlier too, but the Punjab was able to get better crops only because of sound planning. But this time the cotton crop had come under tremendous pressure because of wrong information by Irsa, he added.