May 14, 2006	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 15, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

MIRPURKHAS, May 13: The State Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock Mohammed Ali Malkani, on Friday warned growers who had not yet started work on lining their watercourses despite receiving funds.

Presiding over a meeting to review pace of work on the National Programme for Improvement of Watercourses (NPIW) in Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Sanghar and Tharparkar, the minister said that the district NPIW officer would face suspension if there was any complaint about the quality of work.

He said that action would also be taken against consultants who were found guilty of negligence in determining the quality of work and submitting fake reports.

He said that the NPIW had targeted to line 33,000 watercourses in Sindh at a cost of Rs26 billion. He praised the NPIW’s Mirpurkhas team for diligence and directed the officers to achieve the target by June 30.

Earlier, Federal Project Director NPIW Nasir Mehmood Khosa, Secretary Implementation NPIW Nazar Hussain Mahar and Provincial Project Director NPIW Mohammed Younus Dhaga told the minister that Rs426.44 millions had been provided for lining 659 watercourses in the four districts this year.

They said that the best-performers would be awarded prizes while action would be taken against negligent officers who failed to meet their targets.

Two held: A team of Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) on Thursday caught red-handed a head clerk and a former employee in the presence of a judicial magistrate as they received bribes from a contractor.

The ACE took the action after the contractor Mohammed Waseem informed the establishment in an application to Nazeer Memon, in-charge ACE Circle Mirpurkhas, that Ghulam Haider, a head clerk at provincial buildings department, was demanding bribes for issuing him work order for a contact he had already been awarded for the repair of a food department godown in Pithoro.

The team recovered marked currency notes of Rs5,000 from the head clerk and a former employee Shujaat in the presence of Judicial Magistrate Mohammed Aslam Shaikh.

The two were put under arrest and booked in a case under sections 52 and 161.

Growers protest: Hundreds of growers from Taluka Sindhri and Phuladiyoon on Friday staged a demonstration and blocked roads at Sindhri Chowk to protest against closure of Doso distributary for last three weeks.

Protesters blocked main Sanghar-Mirpurkhas and Khipro-Mirpurkhas roads and raised slogans against the chairman of farmers organization of Doso distributary for his silence over the closure.