Karachi The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Sindh Assembly has sought complete records from the provincial government’s Agriculture Department showing details of the beneficiary farmers in the province who received a total subsidy of Rs 600 million to install solar-powered tube wells and water pumps to boost farming activities in the province.
The PAC met on Friday with its Chairman, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, in the committee room of the Sindh Assembly building to consider the financial accounts of the Sindh Agriculture Department from 2019 to 2021.
The Director-General Audit Sindh objected to the absence of a complete record of the Rs 600 million subsidy programme executed by the office of the Director of Agriculture Engineering Wing of the provincial Agriculture Department to help farmers install solar-powered tube wells and water pumps in the province.
The officials of the Sindh Agriculture Department told the meeting that some 206 farmers had become beneficiaries of the subsidy provided for installing solar-powered tube wells and water pumps in the province.
The DG Audit Sindh said that his office would be in a position to verify the records pertaining to the payment of subsidy if the copies of the Computerised National Identity Cards of the beneficiary farmers and bank drafts drawn in their favour were furnished by the Agriculture Department.
Khuhro asked the officials of the Agriculture Department whether an advertisement had been published by them to properly advertise the subsidy programme so that all farmers in the province could get the chance to become its beneficiaries.
He said the Agriculture Department should furnish copies of the advertisement in question to properly publicise its subsidy programme and complete details of the beneficiary farmers, including the list of beneficiaries, for settling the audit para in this connection. He also directed the officials concerned to first get all the relevant official records of the subsidy programme verified from the office of DG Audit Sindh.
The PAC members were informed that the Sindh Agriculture Department had 77 bulldozers that were provided on rent to farmers at a rate of Rs 200 per hour while the growers had to bear the diesel expense to operate them.
The meeting was attended by PAC member PPP MPA Qasim Siraj Soomro, Secretary of Agriculture Department Rafique Ahmed Buriro, and other officials of the department.
Sindh Agriculture Dept asked to provide details of Rs 600m subsidy for solar-powered tube wells
