'Corruption, negligence in irrigation department will not be tolerated'

Senior Minister for Irrigation, Raja Riaz Ahmed has said that corruption or negligence will not be tolerated in the irrigation department, provision of irrigation water at tail ends would be ensured. He also assured that prompt patrolling round the clock would be fully conducted, for checking water theft and irrigation department will be made farmers friendly.
He expressed these views while addressing a meeting of chief engineers, superintending engineering and other senior officers at Irrigation Headquarters here on Tuesday. Irrigation Secretary Javed Iqbal Awan was also present. Raja Riaz directed that lists of those involved in water theft should be provided to him within 24 hours and a closed contact should be made with the police for taking action on such cases.
He also directed tree plantation on missing reaches of canals, checking of all outlets and providing a detailed report by 1st June. He ordered the officers to ensure their presence daily in their offices at 8.00 am sharp and special attention should be fixed for disposing off public complaints. He also ordered establishment of a complaint cell in the offices of chief engineers and compilation of record of the receiving complaints. He further said that due arrangement should be made for the aggrieved farmers in the irrigation offices besides their problems should be resolved without any delay.
The meeting was informed that Rs 774.60 crores have been received out of assessed amount of Rs 1.5 billion under the head of 'Abiana' by the end of March 2008. Raja Riaz said that performance of irrigation department should be 100 percent accurate and every tail farmer should be given his due share of water and directed for immediate repairs in case of breaches of canals.
Raja Riaz directed the irrigation department to evolve a viable strategy for the provision of 150 cusecs water for irrigating 170,000 acres of arid land of Cholistan. He also ordered to constitute a special committee comprising of honest officers of the department for evaluating technical standards of construction work of the contractors. He ordered provision of details of pending departmental enquiries. He directed to display details of development schemes and number of work charge employees including the detail of their duty areas in the offices of the concerned XENs.
The meeting decided that special control rooms should be set up at a level of offices of superintending engineers which would function round the clock, where facility of recording will also be made available. The meeting suggested that old yardstick of appointing Beldars on canals be changed.