NA standing committee head writes to PM over Irsa issue.

HYDERABAD -- Pakistan Peoples Party MNA Nawab Mohammad Yousuf Talpur - who is also chairman of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Water Resources - has addressed a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan over disagreement between ministry of water resources and Indus River System Authority (Irsa).

In his letter dated May 20, he drew the PM's attention towards disagreement between the ministry and Irsa over installation of telemetry system and cancellation of its contract. He said he learnt that the ministry is writing a summary for change of some members of Irsa, which is an autonomous body.

He said that it is authorised to review and specify river and reservoir operation patterns and periodically review system of such operations. He said that Rule 8(3) of Irsa Act 1992 specifically states that a provincial government or Wapda if, aggrieved by any decision of authority, may make a reference to Council of Common Interests.

He said that even complaints against a member of Irsa must go to CCI under Article 155 of Constitution Council of Common Interests under Article 154(1) and 155 of Constitution which was only forum for resolving issues relating to Irsa, its decision, functioning and complaints.

He said that because of unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles, reluctance to take initiatives, general apathy and preserving status quo we ended up with a faulty telemetry system which was scrapped by federal government, after spending Rs320m. He said...