Asif Shaikh
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, while participating in Prime Minister Imran Khan’s meeting on Locust swarm attacks via video link from CM House on Friday, said that his government has spent Rs 696.19 million to control the attacks but the threat was so serious that there was a dire need to devise a National Action Plan to control the situation. PM Khan held a meeting to control Locust swarm attacks in Islamabad and the chief minister of all the provinces participated in the meeting through video link. The Sindh chief minister was assisted by Agriculture Minister Ismail Rahu, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi, Secretary Agriculture Raheem Soomro, Secretary Food Laiq Ahmed and others. The chief minister said that breeding season of locust which has settled in the deserts of Thar and Nara would stat breeding from July to December 2020 and during the same period they would breed in Cholistan of Punjab. Shah told the prime minister that the desert locust swarm was reported in NARA Desert in May 31, 2019 and he had approached the federal government to initiate ground and aerial spray. He added that the federal Plant Protection initiated ground operation on June 3, 2019. He said that the fed Plant Protection department had aircrafts but they had no funds to purchase fuel for aerial spray in the desert area of Sindh, therefore he gave them a grant of Rs10 million. He added that Sindh government has also released Rs335.095 million to provincial agriculture department to purchase vehicles, spray machines, pesticides, POL and support to field staff. “Out of Rs335.095 million Rs209.746 million have been utilized so far,” he said. Shah also said that Rs16 million have also been released to the deputy commissioners of five dsitricts, Ghotki, Sanghar, Tharparkar, Umerkot and Khairpur. The chief minister said that 57 teams of Agriculture Extension with 200 field staff equipped with 25 vehicles were working in the field to control the locust swarms. He added that 300 solo power spray and 10,000 hand sprayers have been provided to the field staff for locust operation.
