MIRPURKHAS: Cotton sowing, mango crop hit by water shortage
By Qamaruddin
MIRPURKHAS, April 18: A shortage of water in the Nara Canal for the last 15 days has affected cotton sowing and mango orchards. According to a survey conducted by this correspondent
, water supply to over 100 distributaries has been suspended by the irrigation department under a water rotation programme.
Though the supply of water in the canal has increased from 3,000 to 7,000 cusecs but the growers have not benefited from it due to mismanagement by the irrigation officials.
The Growers Association taluka office-bearers, Moosa Mahar and Shamsuddin Shaikh, said that over 500 mango orchards faced an acute shortage of water. They said that a large quantity of unripe mango had dropped from the trees as a result of the water shortage, causing loss to the farmers. They said that the cotton sowing was delayed and growers were compelled to sow it on a less area.
DEMO: Residents of Sonal Bah village Chhachhro taluka, Tharparkar district, held a demonstration outside the press club here on Sunday against the occupation of their houses and land.
They carried banners and placards inscribed with different slogans against the former MPA Inayatullah Rahimoon, Seth Siraj Soomro and his henchmen. They alleged that their houses were occupied by the land mafia with the support of local administration.
They said that political leaders and elected representatives of their area were not taking notice of their plight as their families lived under the open sky. They urged the Sindh governor and chief minister to rehabilitate them.
Bhagwandas advocate, Akro Bheel, Qasim, Hayat, Misri Bheel and others also observed a token hunger strike.
ENQUIRY: DEO (elementary) Ibrahim Kumbhar and Government Poly- technical College Principal A.L. Juggro have established that the former ADEO elementary (women) of Kot Ghulam Mohammad taluka is responsible for misappropriation of Rs300,000 in the scholarships of girl students.
They found during an inquiry ordered by the EDO, education, that the official received illegal fees from students of VI, VII and VIII for three years when she was headmistress of a girls middle school. She was suspended in 1999 following the corruption charges.
Later, she deposited Rs200,000 in the government account. The ADOE was later on reinstated. The sources said that she had also made 14 fake appointments of employees and they were shown to have been transferred and posted in the Kot Ghulam Mohammad sub-division.
