HYDERABAD, March 1: The Sindh Abadgar Board expressed its satisfaction over the Sindh Assembly’s move to adopt a unanimous resolution against the greater Thal canal.

This was resolved in a meeting of the SAB’s working committee, chaired by the president of the Board, Abdul Majeed Nizamani.

Thanking both the treasury and the opposition benches for taking concrete steps in this regard, the meeting said that the move was in the interest of the province as well as the country as a whole.

Members of the meeting observed that because of continuous drought, acute shortage of water, destruction of its forest sector and pollution, Sindh’s economy had been destroyed and the people of the province as well as crops and livestock had been exposed to various diseases.

They called upon the government to convene an international scientific meeting to discuss the prevailing situation and find ways and means to remedy the situation.

Expressing disappointment over what they termed step-motherly treatment being meted out to Sindh while six district of Balochistan had been declared drought-hit and growers in those areas had been exempted from paying taxes, mark-up on their bank loans had been waived while the recovery of capital amount had been postponed indefinitely.

Not only this, the meeting said, a package had also been announced to restore the agricultural economy of Balochistan and international support had also been arranged for the growers.

The meeting regretted that despite persistent drought, no relief had been provided to Sindh.

The Board members urged the federal government to announce a relief package for Sindh.

Quoting press reports, the Board noted that Kunri taluka alone had suffered a loss of Rs850 million in chili crops, 400 shops had been closed, orchards had shrunk to just 15 per cent of the total area covered previously while wheat crop had been sown over only 30 per cent of the cultivable land.

The meeting further demanded of the government to seek the help of international agencies to provide aid for the people of Kohistan and Thar.