July 25, 2008	Friday	Rajab 21, 1429

HYDERABAD, July 24: The employees of Sindh Rural Development Project, local government department, have appealed to the Sindh government, the People’s Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement to save the employees of the project and their families from starvation by regularising their services as they are likely to be rendered jobless with the closure of the project.

Addressing a news conference here on Thursday, Malik Imtiaz, Mansoor Ahmed Hameedi and other employees of the project said that the project was launched by the Sindh government in cooperation with the Asian Development Bank in 2003 with a total outlay of $60 million.

They said that initially it was stipulated that 1700 people will be employed, but during the first phase, only 45 people were employed, who are still working in the department and no further recruitment was made as the development was carried out in only four districts of Sindh.

They said that Sindh was basically an agricultural province with agricultural land of 5.45 million hectares which was 39 per cent of the total area. 51 per cent of the population lives in 66,000 villages, while 80 per cent of the total population besides livestock is directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture, they added.

Keeping in view these facts, they said, the Sindh government with the cooperation of Asian Development Bank had launched this project for the development of rural areas and livestock and to alleviate poverty from the backward areas.

Explaining the aims and objects of the project, the employees said that roads were to be constructed in 750 villages which were also to be supplied clean drinking water, electricity and sewerage and drainage system.

In addition to this, they said, 42,000 haris were to be imparted training in agriculture technology, 32,000 workers in livestock and 16,000 female workers in domestic industry.

They further said that the infrastructure of the rural areas was to be upgraded, model villages were to be constructed and bonded labour was to be completely abolished.

They, however, regretted that these objectives could not be achieved as the lion’s share of funds was spent on the purchase of costly vehicles, furniture and luxuries of officials.

There was no coordination between the stakeholders and district governments were bypassed and funds were not made available at the district level, they said and added that the bureaucracy was only interested in their perks and luxurious living.

These were the reasons, they said, that the project was being closed and they had not been paid their salaries for the last ten months.

They demanded that their salaries should be paid and they should be confirmed in service at district level in the local government department.

They further demanded that an inquiry should be held as to why this project which was meant for the development of rural areas was being closed and that those responsible for its closure should be punished.

Answering questions, they said that initially the project was restricted only to Thatta, Badin, Mirpurkhas and Sanghar districts but no tangible progress was made.

They said so far only $20 million had been spent on the lopsided development works in Thatta and Mirpurkhas districts whereas the remaining 40 million dollars had either been withdrawn or withheld by the Asian Development Bank.