MIRPURKHAS: Speaker for closure of water to defaulters
By Our Correspondent
MIRPURKHAS, Sept 3: Speaker of Sindh Assembly, Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, on Monday suggested closure of supply of irrigation water to the farmers who failed to clear water tax dues.
Mr Shah said at a awareness seminar organised by the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (SIDA) that the officers and growers should prepare recommendations for redressing the growers grievances, including share of irrigation water so that amendments could bet be made to the SIDA Act.
He stressed that the chairman of farmers’ organisation should be authorised to maintain water gauge and discharge and lodge FIR against water thieves without involving irrigation officials. There were, however, complaints that watercourses of the chairmen of farmer organisations had been found tempered with, he added.
He said that a bill for amendment to the old Tenancy Act would be presented by a committee in the next Sindh Assembly session, which would define the responsibilities of peasants and landlords.
Mr Shah said that in the light of the principle that the tail-end growers had more rights over irrigation water the chairman of farmer organisations should be tail-end growers. Water was a source of life hence there should be no politics over its supply, he urged.
The managing director of SIDA, Mohammed Hashim Leghari, said that farmer organisations were playing a positive role in the distribution of water in a judicious manner and might help eliminate poverty in future.
He said that a growers’ convention would be organised in each division of the province to listen to and solve their problems. The work on desilting of LBOD main drain, sub drains and spinal drain had been carried out at a cost of Rs110 million, he said.
He said that SIDA was running the system successfully with the growers’ cooperation and 325 farmer organisations were running efficiently in the province.
The nazim of union council Jhillori, Yar Mohammad Baloch demanded that the authorities should immediately remove 265 illegal pumping machines installed on the banks of Nara Canal in Khairpur.
Earlier, chairman of Nara Canal area water board, Khair Mohammad Bhurgri, FOC Chairman Javed Junejo, Engineer Ghulam Mustafa Ujjan, Prof Aijaz Qureshi, Nazeer Memon, Ayub Wassan, Saleem Malkani, Ali Akbar Bodlo, Gul Siddique Pathan, Chaudhry Maqbool, Manzoor Ali Bhambhro and Malik Lal Khan presented problems faced by farmer organisations and complained that irrigation officers were not cooperating with them.
