MITHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that his government is set to bring a ‘revolution’ in the lives of the people of Thar by initiating a number of mega projects.

He said this while addressing a public gathering after inaugurating a small dam in Nagarparkar on Wednesday.

He said that the people of Thar were with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) right from the period of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto but their votes used to be stolen through engineered election and now the entire Thar stood with the PPP by rejecting ‘seasonal’ politicians.

The chief minister said that the PPP, despite getting majority votes from the people of Thar was not given even a single seat. “I don’t want to take his name but a so-called leader of Thar was an expert in manipulating the elections,” he said, and added that finally the people of Thar with the power of their votes and commitment rejected other parties, alliances and individuals and elected the PPP to power.

Mr Shah said that the PPP had delivered in Thar and served its people with heart and soul. “Look at the roads, bridges, small dams, coal and power projects, employment opportunities and RO plants. We have given almost every facility to the people of Thar,” he said.

He added as far as employment opportunities were concerned each and every house of Tharparkar district had on an average one job at RO plants, coal mining, coal power and related projects.

The chief minister said that his government was also establishing well-reputed educational institutions such as NED and Liaquat universities’ campuses in the first phase and fully fledged universities in the second phase.

Talking about the small dam projects, Mr Shah said: “The Karoonjhar Hills in Nagarparkar is spread over 400 square kilometres and on an average the area receives 13 inches of rainfall [annually], which generates 0.095 million acre feet of water.”

He added that the rainwater needed to be stored. “Before construction of dams water used to go waste to the Rann of Kutch,” he said.

The CM said that the small dams Project in Nagarparkar was launched with the construction of 42 small dams and 23 of those had been completed.

He said the construction of remaining 19 dams was in progress and they would be completed in July 2022.

Mr Shah said that before construction of the small dams, there was an acute shortage of water and people used to migrate with their cattle from Nagarparkar to barrage areas in search of their livelihood.

He added that during the migration process people used to face great troubles, including deaths of their cattle.

“Now, after completion of 23 small dams, rainwater is being stored for the people, their animals, agriculture and for the wildlife for the whole year,” he said.

“Residents of 45 to 50 villages are not getting potable water from the dams not only for them but for their animals and irrigation of their barren lands,” he said and added “After completion of the whole project about 85,000 acres of agriculture land would be cultivated and 87 villages would have the facility to use dam water.”

He said that the Kalidas dam was constructed on Bhattyani rivulet located at a distance of one kilometer in the west of Nagarparkar town with a cost of Rs333 million.

“Three months have passed to the last rain but still 13 feet of water is available at crest against 15 feet maximum depth in the dam,” he said and added that water would remain available in the dam for the whole year.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2020