KARACHI  -  The Public Accounts Committee of Sindh Assembly on Friday sought the record of Rs 600 million subsidy to farmers in the province for solar tube wells and solar water pumps.

The provincial Public Accounts Committee meeting held with Nisar Khuhro in the chair, also directed to submit him details of those who had received the subsidy from Agriculture Department.

According to statement issued on Friday, the PAC also directed DG Audit Sindh to verify the Audit report of providing Rs. 600 million subsidy to farmers for solar tube wells within a week.

The meeting after deliberation also sought the expenditure of special grants of Rs 49 million issued to the DG Agriculture Extension Hyderabad.  

The meeting reviewed the audit reports of the Agriculture Department from the year 2019 to 2021. The meeting was attended by the Secretary of the Department Rafiq Burriro, Committee Member Qasim Siraj Soomro, DG Audit Sindh and other officers of the department.

In the meeting, the DG Audit Sindh raised objections to the complete record of Rs 600 million spent on solar tube wells and solar water pumps by the Director Agriculture Engineering Wing Hyderabad to farmers across the province as a subsidy.

Chairman PAC Nisar Ahmed Khuhro asked the department to provide a list of how many farmers have been provided with subsidy for solar tube wells.

An officer of the department told the PAC that subsidy has been provided to 206 farmers of in the form of solar tube wells. DG Audit Sindh said if the identity cards of those who have been provided subsidy on solar tube wells and copies of their 20% bank draft and all records are provided, then this audit para can be verified.

In response to PAC chairman’s query, department officers told the meeting that there were 77 bulldozers and these were rented to farmers at the rate of Rs 200 per hour.  The meeting also revealed that the arrears of Rs 28.684 million had not been collected from the allottees in the form of allotment of plots under the Agro Export Processing Zone scheme.

As many as 9 audit cases of Agriculture Department were settled while 15 cases were deferred till the next meeting and DG Audit was asked to verify these audit reports.