Water shortage can be met by stopping pilferage in canals: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan was informed Thursday that it is likely that rabi crop will be affected due to 28% shortage of water in reservoirs.

To this, the prime minister said that this shortage can be met by stopping pilferage of water in the canals. Prime Minister Imran Khan met with a delegation of farmers from Southern Punjab.

The premier underlined the importance of solving problems of genuine farmers. He said, "Immediate steps in collaboration with the irrigation department of Punjab should be taken to stop pilferage of water in the canals."

He emphasized on decrease of middlemen’s role enabling the farmers to get good price of their products. The prime minister further directed the authorities concerned to invoke relevant laws to deal with cartelisation and to shun hoarding practices.

The prime minister was apprised that Pakistan is blessed with a rich natural resource base for agriculture. However, despite having one of the world-best alluvial soils, diversified weather conditions, the best irrigation system and assiduous farmers, we could not fully harness the potential of our agriculture sector mainly because of misplaced priorities of the previous governments.

He said that in order to explore full potential of the agriculture sector, the government has launched Agriculture Emergency Programme worth Rs277 billion, which is an unprecedented allocation for the sector.

“This initiative is aimed at enhancing the productivity of wheat, rice, sugarcane, pulses, and oilseed crops; besides developing livestock and water sectors. Our government is also extending Kissan Cards to farmers, especially the smaller ones, for modernising the agriculture sector. Through this card, farmers will get benefits of various government programmes, such as crop loans and subsidies on fertilizers, seeds and pesticides,” he noted.

“Due to the government’s favourable policies, the production of wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane, potato, onion and groundnut has increased to a record level despite COVID pandemic,” he maintained.

The meeting was also attended by Minister for National Food Security Syed Fakhar Imam, Industries Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar and Energy Minister Muhammad Hammad Azhar.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired a meeting on administrative matters of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and improvement of civic amenities. The meeting was attended by federal ministers Shafqat Mehmood, Asad Umar, Special Assistants Dr Faisal Sultan and Ali Nawaz Awan, Member National Assembly Raja Khurram Nawaz and CDA chairman and senior officers.

The CDA chairman gave a detailed briefing to the meeting regarding the progress and administrative matters on the ongoing development projects. The premier said that the facilities provided to the citizens of Islamabad should be further improved. Civic amenities in the capital should be of international standard. “Administrative matters related to law and order, health and property should be made more convenient and efficient so that the problems of the citizens can be solved quickly, said the prime minister, who expressed satisfaction over the progress of development projects