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HYDERABAD, Sept 27: A large number of the Jeay Sindh Mahaz (Z) activists staged a token hunger strike on Saturday outside the local press club to protest against the construction of Kalabagh dam and tjhe Greater Thal canal.
Talking to journalists, Mahaz chairman Syed Zain Shah said the rulers had usurped the rights of the small provinces and had become the protectors of the interests of a particular province.
He alleged that President General Pervez Musharraf had launched a pro-Kalabagh dam and Greater Thal canal movement with a view to deprive Sindh of its just share of water.
He said the cause of the people of Balochistan was also being harmed through the construction of Kachhi canal and Gwadar port.
He said that if the dam was constructed, five districts of NWFP would be rendered unfit for cultivation. He stressed that the people of Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan would not allow the construction of these projects.
He called upon political parties of the country to launch a consistent struggle for the resolution of the burning water issue.
BREACH INQUIRY: Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority managing director Rafiq Safi has asked the acting director, Nara Canal Area Water Board, to send a report on priority basis about the causes of two breaches in Mithrao Canal and to fix responsibility for the said breaches.
Mr Safi, who supervized the plugging of a breach at RD-334 on Friday, has also sent a communication to the provincial secretary, Irrigation and Power, to delegate administrative and financial powers to the SIDA management as well as area water boards to meet such emergencies.
Meanwhile, SIDA spokesman G. N. Mughal told this correspondent on Saturday that a second breach at RD-303 was also plugged on Friday.
He said that water had been released in the canal at the level of 8.5 feet which would be increased gradually. When the breaches occurred, the water level was 14 feet, he added.
