Ministry of Finance has refused to bear the financing of a project, "Water Conservation and Productivity Enhancement through High Efficiency Irrigation Systems" (HEIS), costing Rs 18 billion after provinces expressed serious concerns over the directives of President and Prime Minister to transfer the project to Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC).
The President / Prime Minister Secretariats issued the directives on June 08, 2009 for transferring the project from Federal Water Management Cell (FWMC) to PARC, which has upset the provinces. According to sources, the representative of Finance Ministry informed the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) in its meeting held on November 3, 2010 that huge share had been given to the provinces under National Finance Commission (NFC) Award.
"Therefore, major share of the project cost should be borne by the provinces and only minor share be borne by federal government, as the subject of agriculture is a provincial subject under 18th Amendment," Finance Ministry representative said.
The representative of the government of Sindh showed his reservations regarding implementation of the project through PARC and said that after the promulgation of the 18th Amendment, implementation/ management of the agriculture was purely provincial matter.
"Therefore, the project might be completely executed by provinces whereas PARC stands for Pakistan Agriculture Research Council, therefore, PARC had nothing to do with implementation as it is research organisation," he said adding that the project was not research oriented project; hence the project could not fall in the domain/mandate of PARC.
The CDWP recommended that the project be submitted with Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec), requesting to approve the project keeping in view of the provincial reservations and in a cost effective manner.