CHAKWAL: If one has to get a glance of the bureaucratic apathy and indifference towards public property, they should visit the office of the agriculture department in Chakwal where equipment worth millions of rupees has been rusting in the open for 10 years.

Despite the direction of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the district administration has not been able to arrive at a decision on how to utilise these implements.

During the financial year 2006-07, the then district administration led by district nazim Sardar Ghulam Abbas purchased 68 tractors and 314 agricultural implements under the ‘Provision of 68 tractors with implements to the district Chakwal for the provision of services to farmers’ at a cost of Rs55 million. The implements included 68 cultivators, 68 front blades, 18 disc harrows, 18 fertiliser spreaders, 27 groundnut planters, 34 automated combine rabi drills, 18 rotavators, 27 wheat straw choppers, 18 chisel ploughs and 18 ploughs called Raja hall.

Under the scheme, one tractor along with agriculture implements was to be given to each union council but as the then district government could not hire drivers for the tractors, the scheme could not be materialised.

In the summer of 2010, all the tractors were handed over to the flood-hit districts so that the administrations could utilise them in the rescue operations. But no decision was taken about the 314 agriculture implements. However, when the issue was highlighted in this newspaper in September 2013, the then district coordination officer, Yawar Hussain, wrote a letter to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and concerned higher officials proposing that 184 implements be transferred to the agriculture and livestock department in Lahore while the remaining 130 be auctioned.

The chief minister approved the DCO’s proposal and directed concerned officials to take action.

The concerned authorities managed to distribute 184 agriculture implements among different agricultural institutes but failed to auction the 130 implements.

These implements include 33 cultivators, 50 front blades, 17 wheat straw choppers, five automatic combined rabi drills, 18 groundnut planters, five fertiliser separators and two chisel ploughs. These implements are rusting since 2006. Some are placed in Chakwal and others are in Talagang.

Sources told Dawn that these 130 implements could not be auctioned due to the lethargic attitude of the concerned officials.

“The best option to utilise these implements is to give them to farmers through balloting as these were bought from the public money for the farmers,” said an official.

Another official added: “The scheme was ill-conceived as one tractor to one union council could not make any positive change for the farmers.”

Under the scheme, 68 wheat straw choppers were bought but they were not required in the Chakwal district.

“These choppers are used in the plain areas where wheat harvesting is done with combined harvesters but in Chakwal the combined harvesters are not used rather wheat is harvested by hand,” said the official. When contacted, District Officer Agriculture Rai Mohammad Yasin said he would look into the matter.

Published in Dawn, February 29th, 2016