PESHAWAR, Aug 3: The Public Accounts Committee of the NWFP Assembly has asked the revenue and estate department to collect Rs2.34 million water tax from farmers of the Nowshera district in two months and report to the committee.

The committee’s acting chairman, Pir Mohammad Khan, presided over the meeting held on Friday. Abdul Akbar Khan of the People’s Party Parliamentarians, Anwar Kamal Khan of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, Jamshed Khan of the PPP (Sherpao), Muzaffar Said and Khalid Waqar Chamkani of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Khalil Abbas Khan of the Awami National Party and former deputy speaker Ikramullah Shahid Khan attended the meeting.

The committee members expressed dissatisfaction over the collection of water tax and ordered revenue officials to ensure recovery of dues.

They expressed concern over the encroachment of 5,524 kanals of state land in Nowshera by the land mafia for many years and ordered the department to end the illegal occupation of the land forthwith. They said the department should take measures to protect state land from being occupied. They asked who was benefiting from this encroachment and why the department had been silent over it for many years. They said the provincial government had been bearing huge losses since the occupation of the land. They asked the revenue and estate officials to get the land cleared so the government could use it for welfare purposes.

The committee also discussed objections raised by the audit-general’s office on the revenue department’s 2002-03 record. It asked the department why had it not cleared its accounts from the AG’s office. It asked the department to get the accounts audited immediately.

The PAC members constituted a sub-committee comprising Khalil Abbas, Jamshed Khan and Muzaffar Said to look into the land encroachment in Nowshera.