Punjab and NWFP provinces have exceeded the targets fixed for improvement of watercourses last year while a new target of improvement of 15,050 watercourses was fixed for all provinces during the current fiscal year 2005-06.
The Federal steering committee in its meeting took notice of the progress work in Sindh and Islamabad capital Territory, which was found to be slow. The concerned authorities were advised to accelerate their efforts to achieve their objectives so that the farmers could benefit from the project by increased availability of water.
Last fiscal year, 5014 watercourses had been improved as against the target of 5000.
It may be recalled that an amount of Rs 6 billion has been allocated for the implementation of the programme in PSDP 2005-06 and government has decided to release funds for the first two quarters to the executing agencies in order to ensure smooth execution of the Programme in the country.
According to current details as many as 2541 watercourses are to be constructed in Punjab, 255 in Sindh, 1265 in NWFP, 711 in Balochistan, 76 in AJ&K, 131 in Fata and 35 in Fana.