PESHAWAR: The provincial government`s annual canal de-silting campaign has yet to get underway due to delay in the hiring of private consultants, according to official sources.

Besides, according to one official account, the authorities delayed the campaign`s launch to compensate farmers struck by the current lengthy dry spell in the province.

Irrigation canals across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are closed down for one month starting from January 1 every year to remove silt and garbage from watercourses, an economic lifeline for hundreds of thousands of small farmers.

However, the exercise, said an official, will be launched on January 10this year with a delay of 10 days.

More than one official cited the time lost due to the consultants` hiring as the main reason for the delay.

`They (Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders) wanted to hire consultants to monitor the canal de-silting, which proved time consuming,` said an official.

The selection process, added the official, was completed last Friday as a result the annual Bhal Safai (canal de-silting) could not be launched in time.

He said the department had never before hired consultants for the canal de-silting exercise, proving hard for the department.

The irrigation department had to set terms and conditions for the consultants` contracts, determine their role for monitoring and evaluating the cleaning to be done by the private contractors, verify the credentials of the applicant companies, and then the money factor was also taken into consideration for hiring the private firms.`A lot of work was needed to be done before putting the horse to the cart,` said the official.

However, another official attrib-uted the delay to the authorities` intensions to facilitate farmers, compensating them against the current dry spell.

`The consultants` hiring is a primary factor to cause delay in launching the canal de-silting campaign, but the dry spell was also taken into account for delaying the exercise, said the official.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been without rains for well over one month as a result farmers in arid areas have been affected the most with their standing wheat crop suffering slow growth and a termite attack is reportedly in the offing.

Farmers falling in the catchment areas of the canal system also apprehend the closure of canals this year might cause them problems in the absence of rains.

Their representatives, when contacted, appeared unhappy with the government`s policies, complaining they had neither been consulted nor taken into confidence for delaying the campaign.

`Bhal safai is primarily meant for farmers, but nobody ever consulted us in this matter,` said Rizwanullah,president of Kissan Board, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a major association of growers.

He said the delayed closure of canals means their opening would also be delayed, which would not be in farmers` interest.

The irrigation department, said an official, had engaged six consultant firms to monitor and evaluate the canal de-silting this year in line with PTPs policy to introduce third-party evaluators in projects involving engineering works.

Though the provincial government decided to hire consultants for new projects only, the irrigation department has been made to hire the independent experts for the annual de-silting campaign.

The consultants would supervise the de-silting work for which contractors would be hired by the irrigation department. Payment against the contractors` works would be subject to the issuance of clearance certificates by the consultants. They would evaluate the contractors` work and sanction the release of funds to them upon satisfaction that the work has been done in accordance with the laid down work-order issued by the irrigation department.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to officials, spends around Rs500 million annually on carrying out the campaign that includes the removal of silt from the most affected portions as the primary feature.

However, a substantial amount out of the funds is spent on repairing the watercourses.

The delay in launching the exercise has attracted reservations from the farmers falling in the catchment areas of the lower Swat canal system.

The Kissan Board`s president said the canal closure would now continue till late into the next month, which might create problems for farmers in the canals` catchment areas if the dry spell persisted or there happened to be less rains this year.

According to a Peshawar-based senior meteorologist, K-hyber Pakhtunkhwa is expected to receive rains during the second half of the current winter, which starts from Jan 15.