BAHAWALPUR: Due to non-implementation of the directions of Punjab Ombudsman Maj (retired) Azam Suleman Khan for the irrigation officials to supply canal water to tail-end areas of the Panjnad Canal, it is feared that thousands of acres of fertile land around Pucca Laran in tehsil Liaquatpur of district Rahim Yar Khan may turn barren permanently.
Such a development would render thousands of farmers and the people related to farming jobless.
According to the documents available with Dawn, Ghulam Mueenuddin, a resident of Pucca Laran, had filed a complaint on Nov 3, 2022 against the irrigation officials of Bahawalpur zone, Rahim Yar Khan and Panjnad Canal circle, Ahmedpur East, alleging that the canal water was not being supplied to the Tail L.R/18000.
The complainant also accused the irrigation officials of tampering with the outlets, saying the desilting work had also not been carried out and the tenders advertised in this regard in the media were cancelled without any valid reason.
According to him, a number of canal tail minors, including Tarkari, Chaudhry, Allahabad, Raees Pathan, Shammas, Pucca Laran and Choharwala, are not being supplied with canal water, adversely affecting the farmers of these areas.
Await implementation of ombudsman’s order by irrigation officials
On his complaint, Punjab Mohtasib retired Maj Azam Suleman Khan, on April 13, 2023, ordered the superintendent engineer Panjnad Canal circle, Ahmedpur East to ensure the supply of canal water to the tail minors and that there should be no shortage of the irrigation water in the future.
Mueenuddin told Dawn that after this decision by the ombudsman, he went from pillar to post for its implementation but the irrigation officials of Ahmedpur East and Panjnad did not implement it. He submitted applications with the Punjab chief secretary too but to no avail.
Mueenuddin said the tail-ends did not receive water due to which the farmers of the area could not cultivate crops and even now the future was bleak due to the negligence of the irrigation department. He said that on his complaint, the chief of the Programme Monitoring and Implementation Unit (PMIU) Lahore of the irrigation department wrote to the executive engineer (EXEN) of Panjnad Canal division on June 9 but no action had so far been taken by the EXEN.
Mueenuddin has appealed to Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi and the chief secretary to direct the irrigation officials to implement the ombudsman’s order and save the farmers of the area.
Bahawalpur Zone Irrigation Chief Engineer Khalid Bashir Gujjar admitted that the said minors faced acute shortage of irrigation water. According to him, there had been a shortage of water in the Panjnad, a non-perennial canal supplying water to the minors of the Pucca Laran, during the previous years. Besides, these minors were also silted up, hindering supply of the canal water to the farmers at the tail-end. But now, Mr Gujjar claimed, the situation had improved with the raise in the water level in the canal where discharge on Tuesday was reported to be about 8,000 cusecs as compared to previously low water level of about 4,000 cusecs only. He said the matter of desilting of these minors had also been taken in hand.
Mr Gujjar was hopeful that with the increase of water discharge in the Panjnad Canal and the completion of desilting, the canal water would be restored in these minors within a week in pursuance of the decision of the ombudsman and water would reach the abovementioned minors of Pucca Laran areas of tehsil Liaquatpur.
Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2023