FAISALABAD: Officials of four departments – agriculture, police, irrigation and the city district government– will jointly check the canal outlets to control water theft.

This was decided in a meeting of the district agriculture advisory committee chaired by Deputy Commissioner Salman Ghani on Saturday.

The DC said the assistant commissioners would supervise the monitoring committees and ensure strict action against those involved in breaking the water outlets. Similarly, he added, court cases would also be pursued to ensure strict punishment for the water pilferers.

Mr Ghani stressed the need for a vigorous operation against the sale and production of spurious fertilisers and pesticides.

He said provision of fertilisers to the farmers at subsidised rates should be ensured and action should be taken against those overcharging.

He asked the agriculture department to devise planning for the training of the farmers at the village level to apprise them of the advanced technology for better crops.

The DC sought from the ZTBL officer a report of disbursement of loans to the farmers under e-credit scheme of the CM Punjab Kissan Package.

Agriculture Director Abdul Hameed briefed participants that more than 15,000 farmers had been registered for E-credit and Rs401m loan had been provided to the 5,135 farmers so far from ZTBL, Akhuwat and NBP banks.

The officials of the Irrigation, Forest, Livestock, Fisheries, Cooperative, Police, Prosecution, Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco) and other departments attended the meeting.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2017