October 5, 2001	Friday	Rajab 17, 1422

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MULTAN, Oct 4: The Pakistan Seraiki Party (PSP) has demanded that the Seraiki people should be included in the process of resolving any dispute over irrigation water distribution.

The demand was made during a meeting of PSP’s central committee, presided over by party chief Taj Langah on Thursday.

The meeting was convened to review the situation after the October 1 closure of perennial and non-perennial canals in south Punjab. It observed that south Punjab was the worst affected area of the province with cut in irrigation water share.

According to the statistics presented in the meeting, 25 million acres are cultivated annually in the Punjab against Sindh’s 11.5 million acres. But the canals in the Punjab get 54.4 million MAF against Sindh’s 43.70 million MAF. This means that Sindh gets 80 per cent more water per acre as compared to the Punjab.

The meeting was informed that Sindh’s share in water was only 17 per cent less than that of the Punjab, including Seraiki belt. Sindh produced 15 per cent of country’s wheat against Punjab’s share of 80 per cent. Sindh produced 20 per cent of the country’s cotton against Punjab’s share of 80 per cent. It produced 40 per cent of rice against Punjab’s share of 50 per cent.

It was observed that Sindh had been facing the problem of water-logging owing to excess of water. The growers in the Punjab have to use tubewells to bridge the gap between demand and supply of irrigation water.

The executive committee alleged that the policy-makers in Lahore have made the Seraiki area people a scapegoat to satisfy Sindh’s demand for more water.

The PSP chief constituted a committee to keep a vigil on the rights of Seraiki people in any dispute over the share of water.

The meeting also expressed concern over the low prices of phutti (seed cotton) and demanded that its price should be fixed at Rs1,200 per maund.

The growers were advised not to sell cotton in haste.