KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly was on Tuesday told that the development of Thar coal blocks for mining and electricity generation was the prime objective of the provincial government as it would be a game changer for the country.

Furnishing a statement and replies to the written and verbal queries of lawmakers during Question Hour in the house on behalf of the chief minister, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla said that the development work in Thar Coal Mining Block-II was in full swing.

He said that availability of water for the cooling towers of the power plants and effluent disposal were the mandatory requirements to fully exploit the resources in the area.

The minister said that heavy investments were made to provide an environment for mining and power generation.

Minister Chawla tells the Sindh Assembly that heavy investment is being made for mining and power generation

To a question, he said that agriculture was the backbone of the province’s economy, which was mainly dependent on the irrigated canal network system.

He said that provision of water for the cultivated areas was made available in order to increase per-acre yield and productivity.

Irrigation dept’s funding

The minister said that the emphasis of the provincial government was to conserve water through lining of canals, construction of watercourses and high-efficiency irrigation system.

Therefore, he said, the size of development portfolio of the irrigation department was augmented in the fiscal year 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18 to give boost to the agricultural economy.

Mr Chawla said that the government’s steps resulted in conserving irrigation water and bringing more area under cultivation to increase productivity.

He further explained that the size of development portfolio comprised four components — schemes of irrigation department, component for lining of main canals, matching allocation for federal projects and water sector schemes under the Thar Coal Infrastructure Development.

Replying to a verbal question by an opposition member, he said that the lining of canals from Rohri to Thar had almost been completed which remarkably helped in controlling wastage and theft of water in the province.

To a question by Grand Democratic Alliance’s Nusrat Saher Abbasi, the minister said that the community development programme for sustainable development goals was included in the annual development plan (ADP) 2017-2018 for one year and it was completed by June 2018.

He added that Rs20 billion was allocated to the scheme, while Rs15.68bn was spent on it.

He said that the scheme was not included in ADP 2018-19 due to shortage of funds as the federal government had not released the share of province’s funds.

When Ms Abbasi quipped that the federal government did not release funds to the Sindh government because of its incompetence, Mr Chawla wondered if GDA supported the federal government’s policy of not releasing due share of funds to the province.

To another question, he said that the size of ADP for works and services department was increased in the financial years 2016-17 and 2017-18. However, he added, the size of its development portfolio was decreased in 2014-15 and 2015-16 due to financial constraints, which cropped up following heavy rains and flooding in parts of the province.

The minister attributed increase in size of the ADP in 2016-17 and 2017-18 to a high demand from general public that necessitated creating linkages between farms to markets to major cities for generating economic activity and reaping benefits from development expenditure.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2019