LAHORE, May 27: Wazirabad is threatened due to construction of 11 spurs between Head Marala and Alexandria Bridge on the Gujrat side of the Chenab.
Punjab Agriculture Secretary Javed Majid disclosed while explaining an audit objection to overspending on a spur during 1997-98 at the meeting of the Adhoc Public Accounts Committee held at the Punjab Assembly Chambers here on Monday. Mr Riaz H.Bokhari was in the chair.
He said that Wazirabad had been threatened because the space available for the expansion of the Chenab during the floods had shrunk due to the construction of too many spurs on the Gujrat side. The river would now expand towards Wazirabad during floods as the Alexandria Bridge (the Palkhoo Nullah Bridge) did not have the capacity to allow the free flow of flood waters.
He said that the construction of spurs had become the favourite project of the politicians in the recent past and they got too many spurs built in their areas. The National Accountability Bureau was now seized of the matter and was examining the justification for the construction of every spur. The irrigation department had not been able to spend on flood works this year as a result of the NAB inquiry.
He said that Rs1 billion were available with the Punjab government for the construction of the spurs under the Flood Protection Sector Programme and another Rs2 billion with the federal government. The funds had been provided by the Asian Development Bank. These would, however, be utilized after a scientific study about the location of the spurs to be built in future.
He said that the government had decided to build new spurs after a scientific study to determine the number necessary for flood protection and selection of suitable sites. He said that the government had also decided not to allow any kind of construction in river beds. No compensation would be provided for destruction of structures in river beds during floods either. He said that the availability of space for spilling over of river waters during floods was necessary not only for the protection of cities and towns on river banks but for recharging the aquifer also.
The PAC chairman and members criticized the agriculture department for its failure to recover the charges for supply of Rawal Dam water to the Public Health Engineering Department, the Water and Sanitation Agency of the Rawalpindi Development Authority and the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board. The receivables on this account had accumulated to Rs470 million till date. The three bodies were receiving water supply bills from the consumers but were not paying the irrigation department.
Irrigation officials said that a decision in respect of the recovery of Rawal Dam water supply dues had been taken by a high-powered committee comprising provincial finance and local government ministers and secretaries after 20 years. The committee had decided that the dues be recovered at source and transferred to the irrigation department. At source deductions were also made once but had to be held in abeyance when Wasa said that it would be left without a budget as a result.
They said that the matter pertaining to the payment of accumulated water supply dues had been taken up with the Rawalpindi District Government after the implementation of the devolution plan. No progress had, however, been made in this regard so far. They said that the department had been agitating the matter since 1984. They said that water from Rawal Dam was being supplied to PHED, Wasa and LCB at the rate of paisa 10 per 1,000 gallons. The rate had been raised to Rs4 per 1,000 gallons but payments were not being made even against the previous rates.
The PAC chairman took a serious view of the failure of the agriculture department authorities to utilize the budget in time. He said that the department had surrendered Rs255 million this year due to inability to utilize them. He said that the department neither utilized the budgetary allocations in time nor surrendered them promptly. The agriculture secretary said that a part of the funds had not been utilized due to release of water in the canals for the defence requirements.
He said that the justification for a considerable percentage of emergency works was doubtful. A scrutiny of 2,800 such schemes proposed to be completed at a cost of Rs760 million had reduced the number of schemes to 2,300 and cost to Rs270 million.
The agriculture secretary said the World Bank plan to transfer control of the canals to independent boards was not practicable during the water shortage periods. He said that a board could not manage a 250-mile long canal with 120 distributaries when there was a 51 per cent water shortage and every farmer was out to get his share by force. Only the government could control the supply of water under such circumstances.
The committee called for a disciplinary action against a number of senior engineers for making huge overpayments to contractors and spending without budgetary provisions. The Punjab AG was directed to proceed against the district accounts officers of Vehari and Faisalabad.