HYDERABAD, July 7: The Sindh Abadgars Board has demanded of the government to pay compensation of Rs14 billion to growers of the affected areas whose standing rice crop on 500,000 acres of land has been destroyed due to a breach in the flood protective F.B Bund.

A meeting of the board was held here on Saturday under the chairmanship of Abdul Majeed Nizamani, which discussed the flood situation in the upper Sindh due to the breach in the flood protective bund occured because of the inefficiency of Irrigation Department.

It pointed out that F.B Bund had weathered more heavy rains and floods from the mountainous areas of Balochistan for 150 years.

The meeting, however, observed that in the present rains no less than 500,000 acres of standing crops in Shahdadkot, Larkana and Dadu have been completely destroyed. It demanded of the government to conduct survey of the devastated areas without any delay and make an appeal to the international community and use its own resources to rehabilitate the affected people as had been done in case of earthquake in Kashmir and NWFP.

It further demanded that an impartial judicial inquiry should be conducted to ascertain the causes of breach in the F.B Bund. It asked the government to disclose the amount of funds allocated for the maintenance and repairs of the bund. It demanded of the irrigation department to explain why the release of irrigation water was delayed for one month during the current year.

It reminded the government that in 2006-07 Kharif season, the government had declared ten districts of Sindh as calamity affected areas due to heavy rains and breaches in the Sim Nullah and exempted the growers of these ten districts from the payment of land tax, water tax, local cess and drainage cess.

It, however, observed that notification to this effect was issued on June 4, 2007, while the recovery by the revenue department had already been made in many talukas and dehs.

The meeting, therefore, demanded that refund of this amount should be made to the affected growers latest by July 20 through crossed cheques and the list of such growers should be made public.

It demanded an appointment of a high powered board comprising the growers and the officials of the department concerned to control floods and deforestation in Thar, Kohistan, and other areas as well as to check pollution.

It further demanded that inquiries should be held into all development works carried out since 2001, to ensure whether those schemes had been completed according to priorities and specifications.

Expressing concern over the inordinate delay in the payment of outstanding dues by the sugar mill owners to the sugar cane growers amounting to tens of millions of rupees, it demanded of the government to direct the millers to pay their dues immediately.

The meeting also urged the government to extricate the sugar mill owners from financial crisis by purchasing sugar from the mills as buffer stock to enable them to start the next crushing season in time.