LARKANA, July 22: Funds sanctioned for repairing the damaged part of J-Spur of Nusrat Loop Dyke of River Indus, 28km from here, have not been released and as a result the repair work is feared to be delayed.

During a visit to the area, this correspondent saw a number of stone-loaded trucks standing there and labourers unloading boulders.

“We regularly dump 150 trucks of stone from Aror near Rohri for the 2740-foot eroded section of J-spur constructed to divert the Indus flow, said Akhtiar Memon, the project manager of the contractor.

He said that not a single paisa had so far been paid to the contractor, and, according to his claim, 70 per cent of the work had been done at the site where currently there were four loaders and three excavators with 50 labourers at work.

According to Jameel Sangi, the SDO of Dadu Northern Division of the irrigation department, work on the project was started on June 14 and it was scheduled to be completed in three months. The Sindh government had sanctioned Rs26 million, he said.

The work, he said, was likely to be completed by the first week of August.

The damaged portion of J-spur was only 2,000 feet from the main dyke and the pressure of water during September 2011 flood damaged the 1250-foot stone apron, shank and the head of the J-spur, the SDO said.

People at the site and the irrigation officials said that in 1994, the Indus was flowing from here but due to the river training programme at Akil-Agani and Nusrat loop bund the flow had moved to the present location.

In 2010, the river again started to take the old course but the J-spur stopped it, the SDO said.

Extortion “We have received threatening notes for payment of extortion money to the tune of Rs1 million while we undertook the repair work, which harassed us and led to the slowing of the pace work,” Akhtiar Memon said.

The notes had been sent by a gang of dacoits led by the Narejos and the Khakhranis, he said.

The security issue was brought to the notice of Sindh Assembly speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro who visited the site on July 8. Later, a police picket was set up there and the work picked up.

After visiting the Nusrat loop bund on July 8, Mr Khuhro told Dawn that the delayed start of the repair work was a ‘criminal negligence’ on the part of the irrigation department and planning and development department.

Now the question is if the contractor would continue the work and complete it within the stipulated time or would leave it half way because of delay in release of funds and payment to him, said Akhtiar Memon.