LAHORE, Oct 23: The farmers are ready to take over the responsibility of managing and collecting water cess.

They reached the consensus at a seminar arranged by the Punjab Irrigation and Drainage Authority (PIDA) here on Thursday.

The farmers maintained that privatization of irrigation was beneficial for farmers as well as the country, but the department was not ready to abdicate its powers.

Contradicting the official study that they had failed to manage and collect water tax for the canals in a pilot project, the growers said that their performance had been better than the department’s.

They asked the provincial secretary irrigation to hand over them a few canals and put in place an independent monitoring system for ascertaining the truth.

The department has been handing over dilapidated canals and expecting miracles, they claimed. —Staff Reporter