HYDERABAD, Oct 10: DCO Ali Ahmed has directed relevant officials to achieve the target of lining of 80 water courses under the National Programme for Improvement of Watercourses (NPIW) by the end of this financial year failing which their service contracts will be cancelled.

He was speaking at a meeting to review the ongoing development work of the NPIW at his camp office here on Friday.

The DCO also constituted a team headed by EDO revenue Hyderabad with DDO revenue taluka Latifabad, taluka Hyderabad rural and DO water as members to maintain vigilance and expedite the pace of work so that lining of the targeted water courses should be completed within the given timeframe.

Expressing his dissatisfaction over the pace of development work under which the development work on 21 water courses is in progress, the DCO directed the management concerned to apply the methodology of social mobilisation, to motivate the growers and ensure their full participation so that the lining work on maximum water courses could be started.

He directed the management to arrange a seminar on the lining of water courses and its benefits at Tando Jam for the growers’ awareness and to visit the model lined watercourses so that growers could be motivated about the benefits of the lining of water courses.

He said that in the prevailing situation of shortage of irrigation water, which would affect production of food grain, it had become imperative for us to utilize the available water resources economically and efficiently. He said that any negligence in this national task would not be tolerated and responsible persons would be taken to task.

He said that he would personally monitor the performance of the officers by paying surprise visits to the field and directed the officers to remain in the field.

He said that technical, financial and administrative problems of the officers engaged in this national task would be resolved on a priority basis.

EDO agriculture Hyderabad, Shahabuddin Siddiqui, while briefing the meeting about the current status of the ongoing work of watercourse lining, said that work on 21 watercourses was in progress. He said that the registration of newly-formed water course farmers association was also going on.

He said that 38 targeted water courses were completely lined during the last financial year and hopefully this year’s target of lining of 80 water courses would be achieved successfully.

EDO revenue Syed Barkat Rizvi, EDO CDD, EDO finance, DO NPIW and others were also present.

SEMINAR: A seminar to create awareness among livestock farmers regarding disaster management was organised by the directorate of animal husbandry, livestock and fisheries here at New Cattle Colony.

Director, animal husbandry, Sindh, Dr Ghulam Sarwar Shaikh, Dr Tejmal Singh, Dr Liaquat Ali Jatt and Dr Mubarak Ahmed delivered lectures in the seminar regarding a range of hazards and risks in case of cyclones, storms, droughts, earthquake, floods and landslides.