ISLAMABAD: Senate’s Stand­ing Committee on Water Resour­ces at its meeting here on Thursday sought payment of compensation to the affected persons of Mirani dam in Balochistan without third-party validation of previous payments.

The meeting, presided over by Senator Shamim Afridi, discussed the matter and unanimously recommended to the Executive Comm­ittee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) to remove the condition of third-party validation for the compensation to the affected persons of Mirani dam.

The deputy chief, Planning Commission, informed the committee that Ecnec had asked for a third-party validation of the previous payments before making new payments.

Senator Palijo piqued by Punjab’s attitude towards Sindh on Irsa’s federal members issue

Representatives of the provincial government reported that it was no more possible to ensure third-party validation of previous payments because many of the recipients — displaced families — had moved to other places and provinces.

The committee after hearing the provincial and federal ministries recommended to the Balochistan government to take up the matter with Ecnec with the request to remove the condition of third-party evaluation for payment to affected persons.

The panel agreed with the view of the provincial government that after the passage of seven years since 2012, it was almost impossible to conduct the on-ground survey by a third-party to estimate the losses and hence the compensation money of Rs960 million be paid to the remaining affected persons without the evaluation.

The committee also called for releasing the remaining amount at the earliest.

During the course of the meeting, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Sassui Palijo alleged that the federal member at the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) was being nominated from Punjab while it was Punjab that had opposed appointment of two members from Sindh. She alleged that rules were being violated in the nomination of federal members.

The committee took serious note of the absence of the Wapda chairman and federal planning secretary from the meeting. The Wapda chairman was supposed to brief the committee about sea intrusion in the coastal areas of Sindh and construction of Sindh barrage.

When Senator Palijo raised the issue of Wapda chairman’s absence, Federal Minister for Water Resource Faisal Vawda maintained that he could not make it because he had undergone a surgery. Ms Palijo argued the he had not been attending the committee’s meetings for three months. “When the army chief and chief justice [of Pakistan] can attend parliamentary committees’ meetings, then Wapda chairman was nobody to avoid such meetings,” she remarked.

Senator Mir Kabeer, while asking about the absence of Planning Secretary Zafar Hassan, called for issuing a show-cause notice to him for not attending the meeting.

The committee deferred a discussion on the lands lost to sea intrusion in different coastal districts of Sindh and also a discussion on construction of proposed Sindh barrage until the Wapda chairman was able to come and brief the committee on sea intrusion.

The committee also discussed grant of technical/engineering allowance to Wapda engineers at a rate of 1.5 times their basic pay. The committee was informed by Wapda representatives that this policy was being followed by provincial governments but Wapda followed federal government, hence it could not grant the allowance at this rate.

Regarding the Yetabad Spate Irrigation Scheme of Balochistan’s Dukki district, the committee decided that a consultative session be held between the provincial planning and development department and tribal elders of the area to evolve a consensus after which measures could be taken to get the project funding renewed.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2019