HYDERABAD, May 11: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) on Sunday severely criticised what it called the theft of 8,000 cusec of Sindh’s share in water through lift machines and demanded that the practice be stopped immediately.

The chamber, which met here under its president Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah, demanded that Sindh should get supplied 74,400 cusec water from Taunsa Link Canal in accordance with 1991 water accord.

Sindh, at present was receiving 61,000 cusec water from Chashma Link Canal of which 12,000 cusec went to Balochistan whose share was included in Sindh’s share, the meeting said.

The meeting demanded that according to the Constitution, Balochistan should be allocated separate share in water, and urged the Sindh government to ensure patrolling from Taunsa to Guddu barrage to stop water theft.

Mr Shah advised the representatives of Sindh government to sit at Taunsa to protect their water share instead of sitting in Lahore and claimed that the Punjab had planned to construct a new canal, which would originate from Ghazi Barotha Link Canal and cost Rs7 billion. This anti-Sindh project should be cancelled, he added.

The meeting demanded construction of a dam near Looni Kot to store torrential water and criticised the Sindh government for making no efforts to force the sugar mill owners to pay growers their dues.

The meeting resolved to request the chief minister to convene a joint meeting of government representatives, growers, sugar mill owners, minister for agriculture and cane commissioner to solve the growers’ problems. The meeting also demanded an end to water rotation programme.