LAHORE - The Minister Incharge Irrigation Department Ahmad Ali Olak astonished Punjab Assembly members on Monday when a he disclosed in response to a question that Punjab government had completed the lining of Malka Mines in Sargodha at a cost which was 16 per cent less than the allocated amount. No body was ready to believe the minister when he told the House that the project was completed at a cost of Rs 27.127 million whereas tenders for the project had been floated for Rs 27.313 million. The questioner, Aamer Sultan Cheema and other members through supplementary questions doubted ministers claim, saying that under the normal practice, a project is either completed within the allocated amount or the cost estimates are often revised under the pretext of inflation. The minister, on the other hand, insisted that government had done saving of 16 per cent by timely and efficient execution of the project. Aamer Cheema, however, was not satisfied with the answer. According him, the project was still incomplete and the contractor had not executed it in accordance with the terms and conditions laid down in the agreement. To another question by Mohtarma Nighat Nasir Sheikh, the minister could not satisfy the questioner about de-silting of canals in Lahore. The questioner pointed out that a lot of silt could been seen in Lahore canal near Jallo Morre even today, but the minister tried to prove her wrong saying that operation of de-silting had been completed to the satisfaction of the government. On a supplementary question, Azma Zahid Bukahri of PPP pointed out discrepancy in one of the answers, as the concerned department had not provided detail of the staff deployed for de-silting during 2008 in Lahore. She said the department should have provided names of the contractors who were awarded the contract of de-silting City canal as desired by the honorable lady member. The minister failed to provide list of contractors. The de-silting was carried out by the approved government contractors in 2008, was the reply from the minister. When she pressed for the reply repeatedly, Ahmad Ali Olak ran away by saying that he was not minister-incharge of the department in 2008 when the contract for de-silting canals was awarded. Answering a question about the danger to Purana Syed wala, a locality on the bank of River Ravi near Lahore, the minister said that government had stopped the natural process of soil erosion by tree launching during the flood season, while a long term project to protect the area was also under way to divert direction of the River.