MIRPURKHAS, June 23: The Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB), Mirpurkhas chapter, has condemned the irrigation authorities for creating an artificial shortage of water by sticking to the rotation programme.

Despite an improvement in the overall situation and a satisfactory flow of water in the Nara Canal, more than 50 distries were being closed under the rotation programme, they indicated.

Flow at the Nara head was recorded at 13,000 cusecs following a remarkable improvement in water discharge at all the dams and barrages in the country. The irrigation department had pledged that the rotation programme would not be continued anymore.

The growers, however, are disappointed by the closure of distries which is posing a serious threat to the standing crops mainly of cotton, sugarcane and chilli in the district.

The SAB leaders have observed that sufficient water was being released in ‘selected’ distries.

Haji Abdul Ghafoor Mehar, Vice President of SAB, Mirpurkhas, has expressed grave concern over the attitude of the irrigation department and warned that the unnecessary rotation programme would devastate all the crops in the season.