Murad Ali Shah directs agriculture department to set up organic milk, fruit, vegetable industry in Thar 

Mithi, January 16, 2022 (PPI-OT):Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the performance of the federal government performance in respect of socio-political and economic stability is negligible, and they have spent their over three-year tenure in abusing, accusing, and blaming their opponents because right from the very first day they are suffering from insecurity and inefficiency. This he said on Sunday while talking to media just after performing flag off for Thar Jeep rally organized by Sindh Sports dept at the desert, near Mithi. He was accompanied by Minister Energy Imtiaz Shaikh, Minister Local Govt Nasir Shah and others.

The chief minister said that ever since the PTI has taken over the federal government the country has plunged into different crises such as wheat, sugar, POL, governance, and now urea. “These crises speak loud of the performance of the federal government,” he said. Mr Shah said that the growers have told him that due to the crisis of urea wheat has not been sown to such an extent as was being predicted. “We will have to take extraordinary measures and encouragement to grow wheat in the kutcha area so that next you Sindh may have bumper crops,” he said.

Talking about Jeep Rally organized by provincial Sports dept, Mr Shah said that racers from all over Pakistan have participated in it. “We have decided that in every winter three festivals, sports, cultural and musical events would be organized in Thar to boost its tourism-based economy,” he said. Murad reviews Thar development portfolio Reviewing the development portfolio of Thar at Darbar hall of the DC office, Mithi, the chief minister directed the Energy and local government department to functionalize all the unfunctional RO plants by resolving all the outstanding issues.

The meeting was attended by provincial ministers, Syed Nasir Shah, Imtiaz Shaikh, Syed Sardar Shah, Zia Abbas Shah, SMBR Shams Soomro, Chairman P and D Hassan Naqvi, secretary Local Govt, Secretary Health, Secretary Culture, Secretary Public Health, Secretary school education and secretary college education, secretary irrigation and other concerned officers.

The MNAs, MPAs, senators, special assistants to the CM from Thar also attended the meeting Uplift schemes: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah reviewing development portfolio of Thar said that his government has launched 111 schemes for Rs5653.298 million against which Rs3315.187 million or 59 percent funds have been released, of them Rs2280.807 million or 69 percent funds have been utilized. Mr Shah said that apart from provincial ADP, 261 schemes have been launched under District ADP for Rs4172.473 million against which Rs755.804 million have been allocated and released and so far Rs552.717 million have been utilized.

The MNAs, MPAs and other elected people of Thar told the chief minister that some of the connecting roads needed repairs for which the CM directed the works department to undertake repair works. He reviewed health, road sector, water, particularly rain-pond schemes, and education sector schemes and directed concerned departments to expedite completion of the on-going schemes in time. Meeting with growers and traders: The chief minister held a meeting with growers and traders to listen to their issues and issued them and their directives to resolve them.

The growers said that in 24 union councils of Thar the groundwater was sweet and could be used for agriculture purposes. They said that they have made different experiments of growing onions, tomatoes, Brengle, lady fingers and other vegetables and fruits like chochos, lemon, oranges, guava and various others. They suggested submersible pumps with a diameter of 1 to 2 inches to irrigate the lands. According to them this would turn out to be an agricultural revolution in Thar.

The chief minister directed Chairman P and D Hassan Naqvi to prepare a scheme of 500 submersible pumps for the people of Thar. “This scheme must be prepared at the earliest so that it could be approved and launched shortly,” he said and directed the agriculture department to send the scheme to the P and D. Mr Shah said that Thar has a great potential to grow organic vegetables, fruits and organic cows, camel and goat milk which has a vast and rich international market. Murad Ali Shah constituted a committee under Advisor Agriculture Manzoor Wassan with experts of Tandojam Agriculture University and local agriculturists to study ways and means to boost agriculture sector in Thar and give their recommendation for promoting organic fruit, vegetable and milk industry.

Survey of Thar lands: On the recommendation of the lawyers who called on him at DC House directed the Senior member Board of Revenue to prepare a plan to survey the lands of Thar. Murad Ali Shah taking notice of cutting of trees directed deputy commissioner Mithi to stop it and asked him to grow more trees, including fruit trees to increase the population of birds in the desert. The CM said that Thar seemed to be a beautiful district with metal roads penetrating through sand dunes. “If trees are grown along the roads, they would not only add beauty to the overall view of the area but would develop a healthy environment,” he said.

For more information, contact:
Press Secretary,
Chief Minister House, Sindh
Tel: +92-21-99202019 (Ext: 336)
Website: www.cmsindh.gov.pk