July 18, 2006	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 21, 1427

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KHAIRPUR, July 17: More than a hundred farmers from Nek Mohammad, Bolani Sehto and Allah Rakhio Bhand villages staged a demonstration in Hingorja on Monday to protest against irrigation department and district administration for failing to compensate them for damages from the flood.

The farmers marched in processions led by Zamir Hussain Sehto, Nazir Ahmed Sehto and Shafi Mohammad from their villages and reached Hingorja where they staged a demonstration.

The protesters told the reporters that on July 10, Nau Lakhi canal fed by Rohri canal developed a 60 foot breach at RD-57 which flooded sugarcane, cotton and other crops standing over about 200 acres.

Neither the district nazim nor any irrigation official visited the affected area, they complained. Even though their crops had been destroyed, the department would still pressurize them through police to pay ‘abiyana’, which the protesters announced they would be unable to pay.

They urged the department concerned to carry out a survey of the affected area to ascertain and assess damages to their crops and properties.

They demanded that the government pay compensation to the affected farmers as well as to the villagers whose houses had collapsed due to flooding from the breach.

They regretted the fact that no one had so far taken any notice of their protest which had entered its fifth consecutive day and no steps had been taken to address their complaints.

In another demonstration, a large number of farmers whose lands lie at the tail-end of Gadeji minor demanded that water be supplied to the tail-end.

They said that the acute shortage of water had dealt a deadly blow to their crops of cotton and sugarcane.