BAHAWALPUR, Sept 11: Ruling party MPA Sahibzada Muzzamilur Rashid Abbasi has demanded that the Punjab chief minister's inspection team should check the substandard and ruptured pipelines laid for providing potable water to Cholistanis by the Cholistan Development Authority (CDA).

He made this demand through a resolution moved in the Punjab Assembly, which was expected to be taken up for discussion on Monday (tomorrow).

Talking to Dawn from Lahore by phone on Saturday, Mr Abbasi said that a sum of Rs400 million was being spent on the provision of drinking water to Cholistanis in the desert area.

He said that four pipelines had been laid for this purpose. One of the pipelines from Derawar to Tofana, about 80-kilometre-long, had started leaking from several places on account of cracks.

Residents had wrapped cloths and rubber around the cracked portions, he said and claimed that he had witnessed all this as he himself belonged to this area.

He opined that with such a huge government funds, steel pipes should have been laid instead of plastic pipes in the sandy areas.

There was a heated debate on Thursday in the Punjab Assembly on the complaint of Mr Abbasi, who had insisted that a house committee should be formed to probe the matter.

However, parliamentary secretary on planning and development Zile Huma, Food Minister Chaudhry Iqbal, Law Minister Raja Basharat and Agriculture Minister Arshad Lodhi had defended the role of departments concerned in execution of projects and proposed an inquiry to satisfy the MPA concerned.

They also assured the house that legal action would be taken against those found guilty in any irregularity in the project.