KARACHI, Nov 7: The torrential rains during this year’s monsoon had caused up to 16 per cent damaged to the cotton crop and two per cent to paddy, but sugarcane crop escaped the damage.

This was stated by Minister for Food and Agriculture Arif Mustafa Jatoi while replying to a question from Ms Sharfunnisa of PPP during question hour in the Sindh Assembly on Friday. The minister informed the House that in Dadu district, out of 33,896 hectares under paddy cultivation, the crop on 677 hectares was damaged while cotton crop on 1,791 out of a total of 10,845 hectares was damaged.

Though the question-answer session was the third item on the order of the day, it could not be taken up accordingly as the House business could not proceed on following speeches by members, who paid tributes to veteran leader Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, and the House adopted a motion moved jointly by the treasury and opposition benches.

The day’s Q&A session was devoted to the food and agriculture department. Out of six questions put to the department, three were not answered while answers to the rest also could not satisfy the questioners.

One of the questions not responded was asked by Mr Qamar Mansoor who wanted the concerned minister to confirm or otherwise the Auditor General’s May 2001 report that during the financial year 1994-99, an amount of more than Rs175.185 million had been misappropriated/embezzled. According to Mr Mansoor, the amount was meant for the procurement and storage of wheat and was recoverable from the officials of food department. The questioner also wanted the officials involved identified.

The other unanswered question was put by Ms Nasreen Chandio who had sought year-wise details of profit/loss in procurement, sale and storage of wheat during the period 2001-2003.

Yet another question not answered was asked by Ms Sharfunnisa who wanted to know whether the rates of pesticides and urea had been increased during the last 15 years. She had also asked whether the official rate of paddy, particularly IRRI-6, had not been raised during the said period. The member had further asked whether the government intended to reduce pesticides and urea prices or raise the paddy rate up to Rs300 per 40 kg. She wanted the minister to give a reason if answer to her questions was negative.

Ms Heer Ismail Soho had asked that whether Sohrab Khan Kalwar, Deputy Director of Food, had been served a final show-cause notice with regard to the misappropriation of 80,000 bags of wheat during 1997-98. If so, whether the amount involved had been recovered and if not, what was the reasons.

In reply to the question, the minister said that a final show-cause notice but bee issued. He, however, informed the House that the official had been cleared of the charge by food secretary on April 29, 2003.

Ms Soho asked whether the then food minister had referred the corruption cases against the deputy director to the NAB or Anti-corruption Establishment (ACE) during the year 2000. If yes, what action had been taken against him? she further asked. The minister replied the official record showed that no reference had been sent to any such agency by the then minister but the ACE hadmaintained that an inquiry into the case was pending with the agency.