LARKANA: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah’s Adviser on Universities and Boards Nisar Ahmed Khuhro on Tuesday criticised federal government’s ‘inaction’ over locusts’ attacks in Sindh, saying that the centre had turned a deaf ear towards Sindh government’s repeated requests for assistance in eliminating the pest.

Speaking to Dawn while visiting his farmlands in the katcha area of Larkana, he apprehended that if aerial spray was not undertaken or delayed, locust invasion would destroy all crops and this would cast a devastating impact on the province’s economy.

Mr Khuhro said swarms comprising millions of locusts were landing on sugar cane and cotton crops in their embryonic stage and would devour it. Commenting on federal government’s reply to Sindh’s letter about providing small planes to be used in eliminating locusts, he said “it’s irrelevant”.

“It’s responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Food Security to arrange for planes for aerial spray,” he said.

PPP leader also opposes telemetry system monitoring task given to Wapda

“In the days of [executed prime minister] Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, we had 35 light planes exclusively meant for aerial spray but unfortunately today, federal government has three planes with only one pilot,” he claimed.

Mr Khuhro, who is president of Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sindh chapter, said locusts were currently in egg-lying stage in the desert areas. “The centre is required to come out with concrete measures to crush them before the pest could cast an adverse impact on cotton, sugar cane and vegetable crops,” he said.

Mr Khuhro said he had spoken to Federal Minister for Food Security Fakhar Imam on Tuesday evening and apprised him of Sindh’s reservations over federal government’s handling of the affair. “I urged him to get aerial spray immediately started in Sindh pointing out that the swarms were rapidly devouring crops”, he said.

According to him, Mr Imam admitted his ministry’s limited role in this context and said that the matter had been referred to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which would take action to effectively check the pest attacks.

Water-sharing issue

The senior PPP leader strongly opposed entrusting Wapda with the task of handling and monitoring telemetry system on barrages and canals in Sindh alone, and suggested that such a decision would further complicate the water-distribution system.

“Though water distribution is the task of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa), the institution’s role itself has remained disputed while Wapda is trying to capture a responsibility to punish Sindh for its anti-Kalabagh dam stance. Sindh is already facing a step-motherly treatment as it was taking its water share from Chashma-Jhelum and Taunsa Panjnad canals, which are flood canals”, he said.

Mr Khuhro alleged that Punjab had already been “robbing” Sindh of its water share and now by installing telemetry system on Sindh’s barrages and canals, it was worsening the situation.

He questioned why only Sindh’s barrages and canals were chosen for the telemetry system and why not those of Punjab that “has been stealing Sindh’s water share”.

“It’s also on record that prior to this when Wapda was tasked with monitoring the water issue, it had failed to keep its position undisputed,” he said.

Regarding control of Covid-19 spread, he said under the prevailing conditions in Sindh, vice chancellors of medical universities in the province should tap the chances of conducting research studies on the follow-up cases that had turned negative and cured during quarantine period. The experts having higher degrees in public health and community medicine should initiate such studies which could open new avenues of understanding the virus, he said.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2020