HYDERABAD: Shortage of water causing huge loss to farmers: AT
Bureau Report
HYDERABAD, Dec 17: The central council of Awami Tehrik at a meeting held on Monday termed the Kalabagh dam, Thal canal, Chashma-Jhelum and Taunsa-Panjnad canal projects anti-Pakistan saying that these projects were aimed at destroying Sindh.
Mr Rasool Bux Palejo presided over the meeting.
The meeting finalized arrangements for the agriculture and water conference scheduled to be held on Dec 29 in Hyderabad.
It urged the Sindhi people, including women, to remain prepared to render all sorts of sacrifices to fight for their historical rights.
Addressing the meeting, the president of Sindh Small Growers Association, Deewan Arumal, said that due to the acute shortage of water during the last four years, the growers of Sindh had incurred losses to the tune of millions of rupees.
They said that now the sugarcane crop was being destroyed due to the conspiracy of the government and mill owners.
They said that growers were being harassed by various agencies which were trying to recover their dues.
Leaders of the association said that the government was maintaining a discreet silence over the issue.
They demanded that the minimum price of sugarcane should be fixed at Rs60 per 40kg, mill owners should be directed to start the crushing season and prosecuted for defying the orders of the government to start the crushing season on time.
They demanded that the outstanding dues of growers against sugar mills should be recovered without delay.
They alleged that the water shortage in the Nara Canal and its tail-end channels was 80 per cent and not 30 per cent as claimed by the government.
