The provincial government has decided in principle to wind up the Punjab Irrigation and Drainage Authority (Pida), which will cease to function from December 31, 2004. "The Irrigation Department did not forward any summary to the Planning and Development (P&D) Board for extending the life span of the Pida for another two years. If donors did not come forward to extend their assistance and give a lease of life to the Authority, it would cease to exist from the next year."
Amir Sultan Cheema, Punjab Irrigation Minister and also chairman Pida told this scribe.
The Pida was established in 1996 with the World Bank's financial assistance worth Rs 13 billion while some other donors, like Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan Development for International Co-operation (JDIC) etc had also been extending their co-operation in financial terms.
However, the Irrigation Department instead of spending on the Authority programmes used a lion's share of its funds, said sources.
The primary objective of the creation of the Authority was to involve the farmers in the water distribution and hand over the canal system to the farming community while forming water boards, Nehri and Khal Panchayats. But, the Pida could constitute so far only two water boards in Faisalabad and Bhawalpur, which are also half-cooked and not fully functional, while the panchayats remained in papers only and could not take the material shape.
According to sources, the Authority approved a sum of Rs 90 million in the budget 2004-05 for the training programme, Rs 5 million for publicity, Rs 5 million for social mobilisation, but so far nothing on ground was done and major share of the funds has been misused.
The deputy general manager social mobilisation, also drawing and disbursement officer, has been utilising the funds on different other heads and so far not a single training programme was organised for the field staff, they said.