LAYYAH: At the time of Partition, the Thal area was a vast region of sand dunes stretching from Muzaffargarh to Bhakkar districts.

The then government and successive governments, despite meagre resources, manged to import bulldozers from Europe to level the deserts and make the land fertile.

The process started in 1950 has helped level thousands of acres and provided food and employment to thousands of families. Over the years, the process has now stalled and to some extent is on the verge of closure.

Agriculture Engineering Assistant Engineer Malik Ghulam Husain Bhatti told Dawn that for the leveling of Thal area, the Thal Development Authority established an agriculture engineering workshop in 1950. The workshop oversaw the operation of land leveling and maintenance of bulldozers in Khushab, Mianwali, Bhakkar, Layyah and Muzaffargarh districts. The workshop established its production department where three to five bulldozers were repaired every day and 600 workers worked in three shifts daily.

The operation had also 14-foot leath machines, universal grinders, crank shafts, shaper machines and drill machines. The workshop also ran a driving academy where bulldozer operators and peasants were trained to drive bulldozers tractors.

Over the years, the workshop helped level thousands of acres in five districts.

He said the PPP government in 1993-96 approved an agreement to import 200 bulldozers but the dissolution of the government bulldozed the plan. More troubles came by as the then president Farooq Leghari through an executive order shifted the workshop from Layyah to Dera Ghazi Khan.

This was a fatal blow to bulldozers and land leveling.

In 2010, then provincial agriculture minister Ahmed Ali Aulakh bifurcated the agriculture engineering department and made a Layyah division, consisting of Layyah and Bhakkar districts.

Mr Bhatti said the government had allocated 21 bulldozers for Layyah and Bhakkar districts.

The aging bulldozers have come to a halt, Mr Bhatti said, adding that of the 21 bulldozers, only six are working. All the bulldozers have run 60,000 hours against their installed capacity of 11,000 hours.

He said the six bulldozers were still leveling up to 250 acres every month while the division needed 200 more bulldozers to cater to the demand of peasants.

As the bulldozers are falling, so is the working of the workshop. The workshop, which had 600 workers from the 50s to 90s, has now only 282 employees. As the operation and production wings have been shifted to Dera Ghazi Khan, the 282 workers have nothing to do in the workshop.

The official says one million to 12 million acres of Layyah and Bhakkar districts have yet to be leveled.

Azam, the owner of 40 acres in Thal region, needs a bulldozer to level his land. He says he has visited the office of agriculture department in Layyah several times but his turn has yet to come.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2015

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