MIRPURKHAS Nov 16: The project director of the National Programme for Improvement of Watercourses (NPIW), Mohammad Younus Dagha, has said that action would be taken against NPIW officials who failed to achieve stipulated targets of lining.

He was presiding over a meeting of district and field officers of Umerkot district held in the office of the Umerkot DCO on Thursday to review performance of NPIW in Umerkot.

NPIW district officer Shakeel Ahmed Rahmoon informed the meeting that 109 watercourses were completed last year out of 162 while the target for current financial year is 180 watercourses, of them, he said, 45 would be completed by December.

NPIW project director Younus Dagha said that pace of work should be accelerated with a view to achieve stipulated target. He directed that quality of work should not be compromised at any cost and the concerned district officer along with the assistant director and the consultant would be held responsible in case of fault found in designing of watercourses.

He said that quarterly meetings were held at the national-level to examine and compare performance of the Sindh province with other provinces and added that no leniency would be shown towards officials, who failed to improve their performance.

He said that an agreement with farmers must be executed in presence of the first class magistrate, binding down them to have their watercourses lined according to schedule.

He expressed his dissatisfaction over performance of Pithoro, Dhoronaro and Nabisar field teams and asked officials to accelerate the pace of work.

He said that TA/DA and other facilities to officials are linked with their performance. He asked senior officials and consultants to monitor performance of field officials by visiting sites.

Later, Mr Dagha visited Kunri and Samaro for assessment of work.

NINE HELD: Police detained nine people and recovered an x-rated movie during a raid on a small cinema on Thursday, Police also sealed the cinema.