Hundreds of growers and land owners in the tail-end areas of different water channels of lower Sindh observed a demonstration and stage a protest sit in on Thursday against irrigation officers for creating artificial shortage of irrigation water. The protesters, led by Faisal Rajar, blocked the Mirpurkhas-Sanghar road and burnt tyres, suspending vehicular traffic for almost three hours. Hundreds of vehicles were stopped on both the sides of the road and the passengers had to face great hardships in the sweltering heat.
The protesters raised also slogans against concerned irrigation officials, while alleged that irrigation officials were selling the water to head reach water courses of their minor as result in tail water was not reached. They demanded that the authorities ensure of supply of irrigation water in the tail-end areas.
Later, a delegation comprising some protesters held negotiations with Nara Canal Director Ghulam Mustafa Ujjan and Jamrao Canal XEN Amjad Memon. The protesters dispersed peacefully after successful talks while traffic was restored after 3 hours.On contact, Memon said that water supply in Mirpur minor was closed under rotation programme and was to be opened on June 14 again, but it was decided to open the water supply on June 10 to save the crops of tail-end growers.
It may be recalled that Mirpur minor is fed through the Jamrao canal. The persisting acute shortage of irrigation water in the command area of Nara Canal has been continuing for a long time creating immense problems for the farmers in the respective areas.
