HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) senator Taj Haider has said that there is no use of the proposed Thar Development Authority (TDA) although the bill regarding its establishment is ready to be approved by the Sindh Assembly.

Speaking at the ‘Thar conference-2016 — issues, challenges and way forward’ held in a local hotel on Thursday.

Mr Haider said it was he who had been resisting the establishment of the TDA ever since the working on the idea was started. “There are 14 such authorities in place in the country but what a remarkable service they are delivering is a big question,” he argued.

The senator pointed out that a huge funding was involved in running the TDA and much of it would have to be spent on handsome salaries, cars and other vehicles, privileges etc for its officers. He said he expected no justifiable return on this unnecessary expenditure.

Senator Haider observed that the people who were sure of being inducted into the proposed TDA had already started thinking over what perks and privileges they would be offered instead of how much they could contribute to the working and functioning of the institution.

The conference was organised by the Sami Foundation in collaboration with the National Humanitarian Network (NHN) and Maroora Coordination Council (MCC). It was sponsored by the Actionaid-Pakistan.

Giving an overview of the Thar Coal project being executed by the Sindh government, Mr Haider said that 3.8 million tonnes of coal per year was being explored in the first phase which would go up to 6.5 million tonnes in the next phase. A railway line was being laid between Islamkot and Ketti Bundar via Badin to transport the explored coal.

He said each pit dug at an exploration site in Thar provided 34 cusecs of subsoil water which was a quantity sufficient to irrigate 3,000 acres. Tube-wells could be sunk to use the water for irrigation purpose but electricity was required to run the tube-wells, he said, adding that installation of solar power system at the sites were planned to meet the requirement.

All this was being done to address the most pressing issues of Tharis, he said, and described the issues as food, water, poverty, health and education.

Mr Haider said that a total of 1,000 reverse osmosis (RO) plants costing Rs7 billion were planned to be installed in the Thar region and 400 of them had already been installed. He noted that 61 RO plants were at present lying out of order after sustaining damage due to mishandling by unskilled locals. Local people would now be trained to operate them so that such issues did not reoccur in future, he said.

Regarding health issues, the senior PPP leader said that a Rs5 billion medical support programme for eight districts of Sindh including Tharparkar had just been approved and it would be launched soon.

Recounting certain other measures to be taken by the provincial government, Senator Haider expressed his confidence the Thar region would turn green over the next five years.

Senator Engineer Gyan Chand, Prof Dr Bikharam of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Dominich Stephen of the Participatory Village Development Programme, Fakhra Abro of the Actionaid-Pakistan, Zinia Shaukat of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, Ali Akbar Rahimoon and Senator Haider’s wife Naheed Haider were among others who also also spoke.

Presenting recommendations of the conference, Suresh Kumar of the Sami Foundation urged the government to seriously consider the proposals presented by various commissions on Thar especially those relating to governance and challenges.He said the conference strongly recommended establishment of the TDA which was a major initiative towards ensuring a permanent solution to Thar issues.

The other recommendations included utilisation of Thar coal resources in the development of this desert region; acquiring of Tharis land for the project on a lease basis instead of ownership transfer basis; establishment of an Arid University campus in Thar; and special measures exclusively for Thar to combat climate change impacts.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2016