Senate Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research on Friday decided to move privilege motion against relevant officials of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for their failure to implement the committee's recommendations. Meeting of the committee was held here in the Parliament House under the chair of Senator Syed Muzafar Hussain Shah.
Chairman of the committee said they had thoroughly examined the issue of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council's 1400 acres land and presented a detailed report on it in the Senate on November 15, 2015. The Senate approved the report and directed the relevant ministry and officials of the CDA to submit a detailed implementation report on the issue within two months, but the CDA officials failed to comply despite repeated notices, Shah said.
The chairman and the committee members decided to move a privilege motion against the relevant CDA officials for their failure to act on recommendations of the panel. The committee was also informed that President had yet to approve the Plant Breeders' Rights Bill; therefore the relevant rules had not been formulated yet. The chairman of the committee expressed displeasure over performance of the ministry officials and directed them to improve their performance.
Regarding a report of Cotton Commissioner, Dr Khalid Abdullah, the committee decided to send separate copies of the report to the all four chief secretaries of provinces and provincial industrial and agricultural secretaries for review. The committee members also directed the relevant provincial officials and ministers to attend the next meeting of the panel to give their suggestions and feedback on the cotton report.
The committee was informed that a reduction of around 22 percent in cultivation of the cotton crop has been registered in the country, because the farmers have turned to sugarcane and maize. Project Director Chili Drying Plant Kunnri (Sindh) Muhammad Zeeshan informed the committee members that they would meet the given targets by the end of this month as 3,900 maund chili has been processed so far out of the 5,000 maund.
The chili processing cost Rs 15 per kilogram, he said, adding the people were getting more aware about benefits of the chili processing and it was expected the processing cost would reduce in the coming years. The chairman of the committee directed the project director to present a detailed report on the processed chili, income, performance of the organisation, price and its future projects in the next meeting.