She said that on the directives of the president, a comprehensive plan has been prepared to support flood victims who had lost crops on 2.2 million acres worth Rs102 billion. She said district level committees have been formed to distribute fertiliser and seeds among the growers.
The district coordination officer of each district will be the committee chairman while the executive district officer (Revenue), executive engineer of the engineering department, two representatives from the chamber of commerce and one representative from the Abadgar Board will be members of the committee. “We have given representation to different stakeholders so that the process is transparent,” she said.
The adviser further said that the committee will conduct an assessment and will distribute goods accordingly. “The estimated cost of the plan is around Rs3.36 billion. Fifty per cent of this will be given by the federal government. The Sindh government’s share is Rs1.68 billion. The federal government has released its amount and the initial work has started in a few districts,” Farooqui said.
She said that Dadu, Kamber-Shahdadkot, Khairpur, Naushero Feroz Shaheed Benazirabad, Sukkur and Ghotki are among the target districts.
She said that the government will provide sunflower seeds and fertiliser to growers in areas where the Rabi crop cannot be sown because of the floods.
“The Sindh government has inked an agreement with USAID under which sunflower seeds and fertiliser will be provided for 93,240 acres.
Each grower will be given seeds and fertiliser for one acre and the Sindh Rural Support Programme Network, the Sindh Abadgar Board and the Sindh Rural Support Organisation will start implementing this in different districts very soon,” she said.
Farooqui said the sunflower crop will fill the gap between Rabi and Khareef. She said, “On one hand, the crop does not require a lot of water and on the other it will minimise our dependency on importing oil.” She said that after Muharram, a media visit would be arranged so that journalists are briefed about the situation in different areas.
Agriculture Secretary Agha Jan Akhtar said that reports of mismanagement in distributing seeds and fertiliser are baseless as the distribution has not even started. He said, however, that there were a few genuine complaints about identifying victims and the government has constituted inquiry committees to rectify this.
Additional Irrigation Secretary, Mazhar Shah, said that the process to drain water from flood-affected areas continues.
He said that 94 per cent water had been drained from Dadu district, 83 per cent from Kashmore district and 73 per cent from Jamshoro district. “Within a few days, all the water will be flushed out from these districts,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 12th, 2010.
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