MIRPURKHAS, Jan 13: High price of bricks in Mirpurkhas may create hindrance to achieving the target of lining of 200 watercourses being carried out under the National Programme for Improvement of Watercourses (NPIW). The prices have shot up after closure of the bricks kiln during rains.
A target of lining of 200 watercourses in the district was fixed for the current year. After passage of the six months, departmental process continued on 120 watercourses while work could be started only on 50 watercourses.
The office-bearers of watercourse associations and officials of the department were finding lining of watercourses difficult due to high price of bricks.
Reports said that officially approved rate of bricks was Rs1800 per thousand and under this scheme office-bearers of water course association are forced to purchase bricks at the official rate.
If they purchase the bricks on an higher price, they will have to pay an additional amount from their own pockets. The expenses of lining of the watercourses are usually provided by the government to the associations while they have to bear labour expenses.
Reviewing the situation, the district rate assessment committee comprising EDO finance, EDO agriculture, EDO works and services, district officer NPIW, taluka nazim and concerned nazim union councils sought the quotations from different brick kilns and proposed to increase the official price to up to Rs 2500 per thousand.
The district implementation committee, at a meeting chaired by DCO, revised the rate and fixed Rs2000 per thousand. Revision of rate could not solve the issue as quality bricks were available at the rate of Rs2400 to Rs2600. The growers, who wanted to benefit from this programme, were bearing additional charges of the bricks.
A landlord of taluka Digri, Zano Khan Nohani, said that he had borne an additional amount of Rs125,000 for bricks during the lining work of his 900 meters long watercourse. He said that many of the growers had abandoned the idea of lining their watercourses due to non- availability of bricks on official rates. He demanded of the authorities to again revise the rates and fix it up to Rs2500 per thousand.
DBA polls: The Friends panel swept the annual election of District Bar Association here on Saturday.
According to results, Salahuddin Panhwar was elected President, S.M Saleem vice president, Iqbal Rind general secretary, Jan Ali Junejo joint secretary, Shahzad Talpur treasurer and Akhtar Panhwar library secretary.