December 16, 2006	Saturday	Ziqa'ad 24, 1427

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MULTAN, Dec 15 Civil society organisations have arranged a three-day `International People’s Tribunal’ in protest against the extension and remodelling of the Taunsa Barrage and the suspension of water supply to the DG Khan Canal.

The meeting, scheduled on Dec 27 at the barrage site in Muzaffargarh, is being organised by the Parrah Development Foundation, Damaan Bachao Tarla, Kissan Dost Society and Seraikistan Qaumi Movement Pakistan.

Civil society officials told reporters at the Multan Press Club on Thursday the project had caused problems to the people in Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur districts who had to suffer losses because of the erosion of land, displacement, water logging and salinity.

They said that water supply to the DG Khan Canal had been stopped without any prior notice at a time when the farmers had completed 95 per cent of wheat sowing in the two districts. The canal irrigates one million acres in DG Khan and Rajanpur districts.

They said the victims in both districts had organised demonstrations, public meetings and hunger strike camps outside the office of World Bank but to no avail.

The organisers have invited the representatives of World Bank, civil society and Irrigation Department, the contractor of Taunsa Barrage remodelling project, international neutral analysts, journalists and political activists to the moot.