KARACHI: The Sindh legislature was on Tuesday informed that the rural development department had spent Rs1,187.5 million on the execution of eight schemes under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) during fiscal year 2012-13.

Fayaz Ali Butt, minister for public health engineering and rural development, said while making his statement during Question Hour that more than half of those funds were used in Hyderabad division.

“Some Rs645m had been used on the construction of link roads to villages in the Hyderabad division under the ADP,” said Mr Butt while replying to a question asked by Khairunnisa Mughal.

He said Rs217.52m was used on similar schemes in Sukkur and Rs113.4m in Mirpurkhas division.

Moreover, the minister said, Rs68m was spent on similar schemes in Larkana division.

He said Rs5.31m was spent on supplying and installation of shallow hand pumps under another ADP scheme; while Rs60m was spent on non-mechanised water supply schemes in the ‘Brackish Zone’ of Sindh.

Mobile drinking water testing and safety measuring advisory project under ADP cost Rs58.75m; while construction of drainage and concrete blocks needed another expenditure of Rs15m.

The minister said the remaining Rs4.5m was spent on the construction work of the rural development department office building in Larkana.

MPA Nusrat Sahar Abbasi asked whether it was a fact that 47 water supply and 50 sewerage schemes of Rs1.6 billion were to be completed in June 2010.

The minister said the public health engineering department completed the said schemes costing Rs1.6bn in June 2010.

Responding to another question asked by the same member, Mr Butt said the Sindh government allocated and released Rs505m for water supply and drainage schemes during the year 2010-11.

A total of 37 out of 63 such schemes were related to drainage and sewerage and the remaining 26 were water supply schemes.

He said those schemes were executed in 20 districts with around Rs51m spent on Naushahro Feroze district — most among all districts. Kashmore with just a single water supply scheme received the least funds of Rs4.2m.

MPA Rana Ansar asked whether it was a fact that no new water pipeline had been laid in UC-15 of Hyderabad. The minister’s reply was in affirmative, saying the public health engineering department had not laid any pipeline since the area fell under the domain of the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) Hyderabad of the local government ministry.

During the Question Hour, Khurram Sher Zaman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Minister Butt engaged in an altercation at one point. The minister said the PTI lawmaker should satisfy his desire to make his speech somewhere else instead of wasting the precious time of the house.

Treasury’s Shamim Mumtaz, an adviser to the chief minister, also defended the minister and criticised the opposition member, who insisted that his argument during the discussion was relevant.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2018