BAHAWALPUR: An inquiry team of the Faisalabad anti-corruption establishment carried out for two days on-the-spot technical investigation of the alleged corruption case of 2012 regarding former tehsil municipal administration’s (TMA) mega water supply project costing about Rs200 million.

Under the mega project with funds provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), new tubewells, turbines were installed and new pipelines laid in Satellite Town and kutchi abadi of Tibba Badar Shair in Bahawalpur to provide drinking water to residents.

When the water supply scheme was initially made operational the pipelines got leaked from a number of points and a vast population is still without the potable water.

The ACE had registered a case against the contractor and others and its inquiry is still going on. Later, on the demand of contractor Muhammad Idrees and others that officials were allegedly involved in it, the inquiry was entrusted to the Faisalabad ACE.

The investigation team inspected eight turbines installed on Jhangiwali Road and 12 turbines in a nearby canal of Satellite Town. Of them, four turbines and 10 turbines were found dysfunctional while transformers were also found missing from there.

The technical investigation team also inspected the pipes which were laid underground in localities and collected their samples to check their quality in a laboratory.

It was also alleged in the complaint that besides the payment of Rs200m, the payment of another additional sum of Rs35m under the head of “price variation” was also made to the contractor.

Bahawalpur ACE director Tariq Bokhari confirmed the technical investigation by the Faisalabad ACE team and said the investigation team would submit its fact-finding report to the Lahore’s ACE director-general who would take further action in this respect.

SELECTED: The Punjab health department has selected 10 basic health units (BHUs) in the district’s far-flung areas where medical officers (MOs) will be appointed on the double salary package.

District health authority’s chief executive officer Dr Asghar Saeed said the government had taken the decision to encourage young doctors to serve the ailing community in remote rural areas.

He said the government had decided to pay Rs173,000 to each MO to be posted in BHUs located in far-flung areas.

He said a great rush of aspiring applicants had been witnessed and the Punjab primary health secretary would select them in the coming days.

He said so far the list of 10 selected BHUs had not been announced.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2017