NAWABSHAH, July 12: Release of a Rs50 million grant, announced by former Sindh chief minister Ali Mohammad Mahar for development works in Nawabshah district, is still awaited.

The grant was announced by Mr Mahar during his visit to Nawabshah in December 2003 and the amount was to be equally distributed among three talukas of the district, Nawabshah, Sakrand and Doulatpur.

After announcement of the grant, a committee - comprising former MNA Ghulam Rasool Unnar, Syed Shaukat Shah, Khan Mohammad Dahri, Syed Zahid Hussain Shah, Jan Muhammad Brohi and the DCO - was constituted by the CM house to ensure proper utilization of funds.

All the members of the committee, including its chairman and excepting the DCO, were members of ruling Pakistan Muslim League. None of the five MPAs, two MNAs or district nazim/naib Nazim, all of them belonging to the People's Party Parliamentarians, was taken on the committee.

PPP MPA Ghulam Qadir Chandio told this correspondent that he had demanded distribution of the funds through elected representative but a discriminatory procedure was adopted and the elected people were ignored.

Former DCO Gul Mohammad Umrani (who was transferred last week) said that the release of the said amount was delayed due to changes in Sindh government. However, he said that the amount had been sanctioned, lied with the provincial finance department and was ready for being released. He said that the amount was just an authority letter away and would reach in the DCO's account soon.

The DCO, Nawabshah, Asadullah Dharejo, confirmed that the amount had not been released yet. Water rotation plan: The executive engineer, Nusrat division, irrigation department, has announced a water rotation programme for the Setharki distributary.

According to the programme, RD-0 to 60 of the distributary will remain open from July 11 to 17 and RD-60 to the tail of the channel from 17 to 27. The programme is aimed at ensuring proper supply of water to land lying at tail-end of the channel.

RANGERS: The commandant of Indus Rangers, Col Naeem Sadiq, here on Monday inaugurated the "irrigation block" donated to the irrigation department as a quid pro quo for the land given by it for the Rangers' Public School.