HYDERABAD, Nov 20: The Awami Tehrik chief, Rasool Bux Palijo, has said that Sindh was being forced to sign new agreements under the sixth NFC Award, which will not only create more problems for the province but will amount to strangulation of Sindh.
In a statement faxed to Dawn here on Thursday, he said that all the agreements, including the NFC, which were being signed in the name of the federation were, in fact, aimed at imposing hegemony of one province for maintaining its stranglehold on the other federating units.
Mr Palijo demanded that the basis of the NFC Award should be income generation for each federating unit and not population.
He demanded that in the new NFC Award, royalty for the natural resources of Sindh such as oil, gas and coal should be guaranteed to the province and 70 per cent of the employment in these enterprises should be given to the local population.
WATER SHORTAGE: The small growers of Balghar Shakh and Nanga Shakh of Naseer Canal, residents of Goth Malook Thebo and Goth Noor Mohammad Otho, held a demonstration outside the press club on Thursday to protest against the acute shortage of water.
Talking to newsmen, Jan Mohammad Thebo, Mohammad Yaqoob Otho, Mohammad Jamil Thebo and others said that their lands had been rendered barren as they were being deprived of their legitimate share of water for the last 20 years.
They said that the influential landlords of watercourses No16-R and 12-L had shifted their water share on the west branch Jamrao.
They, however, said that the small growers were not being provided their due share of water.
They said that they could only cultivate their lands if it rained.
They said that the result was that their families were starving.
The small growers said that they had sent telegrams to the senior irrigation officials but there was no response.
They appealed to the prime minister, Sindh governor, chief minister and irrigation minister that they should be supplied water from the Jamrao branch.
ABSCONDERS: The office of the regional police officer (Additional IGP) informed on Thursday that the regional police during the last 24 hours had arrested three absconders and five criminals and recovered five pistols, eight bullets and 12 cartridges from their possession.
