July 24, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 20, 1429

HYDERABAD, July 23: Farmers whose lands are irrigated by Nanga Shakh canal protested on Wednesday against acute water shortage in their area and alleged that the canal had been closed for two weeks to feed watercourses, which irrigate the lands of some Pakistan People’s Party leaders.

The protesters staged a sit-in on the Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas bypass road in Tando Allahyar in protest against acute shortage of water and continuation of rotation programme.

Naeem Yousfani, Sher Mohammad Kalro and Ali Nawaz Chohan alleged that they were being politically victimised because they belonged to PPP’s rival, Azad Magsi Ittehad.

They claimed that despite being the party’s political rivals they had voted for PPP candidates in general elections after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Still, the PPP leaders were destroying their crops, they alleged.

In the meantime, a PPP leader and former MPA Abdul Latif Mangrio passed by the protesters and exchanged hot words with them.

Later, DDO revenue Abdul Aziz Barlas, SPO Irfan Shah and SHO Shams Khokhar persuaded the protesters to end protest by assuring them that they would be supplied water.

No official of irrigation department made any contact with protesters.