HYDERABAD, Jan 16: The Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit bench, here on Thursday directed five growers of Badin district to approach the revenue authorities for getting their areas declared calamity-hit ones due to water shortage.

The, bench comprising Justice Zia Pervez and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, said that the points, raised in the petition, required determination of facts, regarding availability of sufficient quantity of water during Kharif season of 2002.

The petitioner’s counsel, Ayaz Hussain Tunio, raised no objection, after he was asked to take up the matter before the revenue authorities.

The petition was filed on behalf of Qamar Hussain Awan, Ghulam Rasool Jat, Mohammad Yaqoob Mughal, Mohammad Hassan Hingorjo and Haji Meenhal Chang, belonging to 10 different Dehs of Shaheed Fazil Rahu taluka.

They stated in their petition that water was usually provided to their lands from May 1 to Nov 11 but during the current agricultural year it was provided on June 30 to July 23, and after an interval till Sept 25.

Therefore, they stated, it was not possible for the growers of their areas to get full share of water.

They said that they also could not get enough water for their crop as a result their crop were destroyed and expenses, incurred on them, had gone down the drain.

They pointed out that they had cultivated paddy crop on their land and the crop needed continuous water supply for four months.

When their crop grew to some extent, the growers said, it did not get required quantity of water, causing huge monetary losses to them.

They stated that the Tapedar had visited their lands at the initial stage when water was being provided to the crop, which showed some improvement in size. Subsequently, the Tapedar submitted a report to the area Mukhtiarkar in respect of payment of different taxes by the growers.

The petitioners said that after their crop were destroyed, they moved applications before the concerned authorities, requesting them to declare their areas calamity-affected ones.

The growers said that the Nazim, Shaheed Fazil Rahu taluka, also visited their land and submitted his report to DCO, Badin, in which he recommended that the areas should be declared calamity-affected ones.

They stated that the DCO did not take any action to get taluka declared a calamity-hit area but on the contrary, its growers, including the petitioners, were forced to pay the government dues, including agricultural tax, land revenue, Zakat and Ushr, water tax and the ADBP loans.

They recalled that last year also their areas had faced similar situation and the authorities had declared them calamity affected-areas.

The petitioners prayed the court to direct the secretary, revenue, to declare Dehs Garhari-1 to 5 and Ahmed Raju-1 to 5 calamity-hit areas.

The DCO Badin; EDO and deputy district officer, revenue; and Mukhtiarkar, in their comments before the court, said that it was upto the Board of Revenue to declare calamity in particular areas.

They said that previously the BoR had issued such a notification for the whole taluka but it did not do so the current year.