Punjab Irrigation and Power Minister Raja Riaz Ahmed has said that supply of canal water to the farmers at the tail-ends, elimination of water theft as well as corruption from the irrigation department are his top priorities. The purpose of institutional reforms is to transform irrigation department into a farmer-friendly institution to ensure equitable distribution of canal water and complete protection of canal assets, he added. He was presiding over a meeting of superintending engineers and chief engineers here on Monday, disclosed an official. Raja Riaz said that the officers should often pay field visits and ensure supply of water to the cultivators especially at tail ends. He issued instructions to the chief engineer development to furnish a complete list of machinery in the machinery wing, contracts awarded in the past tenure as well as the details of staff. He said irrigation department should award development works to the machinery wing so that development funds are not wasted on jobs done by private contractors. The meeting was informed that in case of execution of development works by machinery wing, only POL charges are received. The minister further directed that in case of execution of development schemes from private contractors, chief engineers should obtain a departmental NOC from chief engineer development otherwise the concerned chief engineer would be held responsible. He said 90 percent of the development work should be carried out by the machinery wing. Raja Riaz directed that all water outlets in the province should be technically rectified and a report should be provided in this regard to the minister and secretary irrigation by June 10. He said details of development projects should be displayed prominently in all field offices of irrigation department for the benefit of the people. He also directed chief engineers to send a detail of vacant vacancies to secretary irrigation so that eligible persons could be appointed. Punjab Irrigation Secretary Babar Hassan Bharwana said the government wants to improve canals network for providing relief to the cultivators. He directed officers of irrigation department to behave politely with the citizens. He said third party evaluation of development projects will result in improvement and transparency of development projects. He also directed that proposals be submitted for improving and streamlining the procedure of departmental promotions. The meeting also considered various proposals for improving the efficiency of the department. Copyright Business Recorder, 2008