PA slates IRSA’s decision to open Chashma-Jhelum link canal

Karachi
The Sindh Assembly on Friday unanimously passed a resolution to protest against the decision of Indus River System Authority (IRSA) to open Chashma-Jehlum (CJ) link canal in Punjab which can affect the amount of water released for Sindh’s consumption.
The resolution was tabled by senior minister for education Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, who is also the parliamentary leader of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the House, and was co-signed by several other MPAs concerned of different political parties.
It states: “The Assembly resolves and strongly protests against the decision of IRSA to open supply of water to Chashma-Jehlum link canal in violation of inter-provincial [water] agreement. The Assembly demands that the supply [to the canal] be suspended forthwith unless the Sindh province gives its consent.”
Speaking on the matter, Khuhro said that IRSA under its mandate had to observe the water apportionment accord of 1991. He said the CJ link canal was a flood canal, which could only be operated when there was the rivers were overflowing and that too after unequivocal consent of Sindh.
He said IRSA’s decision to release 8,000 cusecs of water to the CJ link canal and increase water for Tarbela dam from 12,000 cusecs to 25,000 cusecs would surely infringe upon Sindh’s share as per the water accord. He said the province will not accept any cut in its share of irrigation water, especially at the outset of Kharif season.
Khuhro believed that Sindh could agree to open the CJ link canal by August when there was a potential flood situation in upper parts of the country.
He claimed that IRSA, by taking this decision, had dishonoured a constitutional agreement for water sharing among provinces.
Sindh parliamentary affairs minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro said the CJ link canal had been built to operate only during flood season and that too for 15 consecutive days to mitigate overflow in rivers.
However, he said, the undue opening of link canal without any flood situation in the country meant that upper Riparians had been scheming to undermine the water consumers of lower Riparian areas.
He said there was no doubt major dams needed to be filled to increase the production of hydro-electricity to overcome the power crisis but that should not result in curtailment of due share of irrigation water in Sindh.
Muttahida Quami Movement’s parliamentary leader Syed Sardar Ahmed said ISRA should be made mandated to make sure that its every decision was unanimously agreed upon by all the provinces while the Centre may have the right to veto any controversial decision.
Opposition MPA Mehtab Akbar Rashdi said the recurring issue of CJ link canal on reflected the persisting trust deficit among provinces over the distribution of water.
She said the water interests of Sindh and Balochistan were not being guarded the fact that the representative of IRSA was making these controversial decisions needed to be looked into.
Another PPP MPA, Taimoor Talpur, said that the CJ link canal will be opened at a time when Thatta, Umerkot, Badin districts were facing a severe shortage of water.

Vulnerable establishments
The Sindh Assembly also unanimously passed into law the Sindh Security of Vulnerable Establishments Bill 2015 for ensuring physical and technical security arrangements against terrorism for vulnerable institutions in the province which include places of worship, hospitals, schools, government, non-governmental organisations, banks, wedding halls, hotels, fuel stations and shops.
Parliamentary affairs minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro said the bill was being moved to enact the necessary legislation for safeguarding and securing human lives and sensitive establishments in line with the National Action Plan.
The bill calls for setting up security advisory committee in each sub-division under the jurisdiction of deputy commissioner who will take help of the SSP concerned to identify vulnerable establishments in their jurisdictions.
He also introduced the Sindh Service Tribunals (Second Amendment) Bill 2015.
PSDP schemes
Answering a short-notice question, Dr Mandhro said at present 36 schemes were being implemented under the Public Sector Development Program of federal government, including the K-IV water supply scheme and S-III sewerage treatment project for Karachi.
He said deputy commissioners in each district had been directed to identify development schemes in 61 National Assembly constituencies in Sindh on which work will be started in the near future.
The chief minister’s special assistant on culture, Sharmila Faruqui, informed the House the provincial government had allocated Rs67.7 million for renovation, rehabilitation and repair of historical Shah Jahan Mosque in Thatta, out of which Rs 22.3 million had so far been spent.