Kitchen gardening: Sindh government fails to ensure implementation of project

The Sindh government has failed to ensure proper implementation of the project, ie, promotion of kitchen gardening in the rural areas, and it is feared that the project could not achieve the desired results, it is learnt.
According to the sources, the agriculture department of the Sindh government had launched a scheme namely promotion of kitchen gardening by providing technical and financial assistance to rural women in the year 2008 with a cost of Rs 19.217 million and it would be completed by June 2010.
The basic aim of the scheme was to introduce kitchen gardening to minimise poverty by providing financial support to the rural women to be participated in the training programme, besides providing know how about the preparation of land for kitchen gardening.
Under the scheme, the women of rural areas were supposed to be provided with education about losses caused by insect pests and diseases and their integrated management and provide training to the women regarding effective growing of vegetables in the kitchen garden, they said. Majority of the women population of the rural areas is directly or indirectly linked with the agriculture, they said.
They added that training programme for them was launched to improve women's status in villages and towns. At least six resources persons were nominated from Sindh Horticulture Research Institute (SHRI), Mirpurkhas, two for Tando Jam, three for Mirpurkhas and one for Kot Diji with a monthly salary of Rs 8,000, they said. They further said that some 400 women trainees were also appointed from all the districts of the province to impart training.
However, these women were appointed on their political affiliations and drawing their heavy salaries ranging from 8,000 to 10,000 without performing any job, causing loss to the provincial exchequer, they said. They said that the due to absence of proper monitoring of this very important scheme, the funds amounting to millions of rupees were being misappropriated by the agriculture officials at Hyderabad.
The funds for the project were being released properly, however, the poor women remained ignored in the programme due to which the desired results of the programme could not be achieved at the ending period, ie, July 2010. Many complaints were received by the agriculture department from the selected areas of the project, however, no action was taken against anyone.