December 21, 2007	Friday	Zilhaj 10, 1428

LAHORE, Dec 20: The Punjab government has decided to increase 10 per cent share of farmer organisations in the abiana income.

These bodies have been working for the past several years to improve the water management system in the province and were allowed to recover the water charges on behalf of the government. The government had been paying 40 per cent of the recovered abiana amount to these bodies, which used that income to meet their expenditures, including those incurred on maintenance of canals.

The Punjab Irrigation and Drainage Authority (PIDA) spokesman told APP that the average of the recovered amount from farmers by these bodies during the last three years was much better than that of the previous years.

“The decision of increase in the share of farmer organisations from 40 to 50 per cent of the recovered amount would help improve their performance” he added.

PIDA also presented recommendations to the government to improve the performance of such bodies.—APP