Govt to call CCI meeting on PPP concerns about canals

ISLAMABAD: The federal government will present the issue of concerns of the Pakistan Peoples Party about the construction of canals in the Council of Common Interests (CCI) and its meeting would be called soon.

According to government sources, there are possibilities of resolving the dispute related to the construction of canals. Earlier, the Ministry of Planning had requested the Cabinet Division to remove the Cholistan Canal from the minutes of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec), while the Ecnec had linked the approval of the Cholistan canal to the CCI approval during the caretaker period.

According to the Ministry of Planning, the Cholistan Canal was mistakenly included in the Ecnec minutes because the ECNEC decision was related to the Greater Thal Canal only and not the Cholistan canal. According to sources, the Central Development Working Party has approved the Cholistan canal project, which was sent to the Ecnec for summary approval, but the decision of the caretaker period was standing in the way, because according to the ECNEC decision the approval of the Cholistan canal project was made subject to CCI approval.

Now the way has been paved to present the Cholistan canal project in the Council of Common Interests. According to sources, this item was removed from the agenda of the recent meeting of the Ecnec. They said the Sindh government is against the construction of the Cholistan canal. Sindh has linked the construction of the canal to increasing the availability of water. The Sindh government fears that the construction of the proposed canal will reduce the province’s water share and wants increase in the availability of water before the construction of the canal.

According to sources, the Punjab government claims that the Cholistan canal will get floodwater for four months, but the Sindh government is not willing to accept it. According to government sources, the estimated cost of the Cholistan canal and system Rs211.4 billion and through the project, thousands of acres of barren land can be used for agricultural purposes and 400,000 acres of land can be brought under cultivation.