LARKANA: Paddy growers of various parts of Larkana district on Monday held a demonstration Jinnahbagh gate to demand a reasonable price of their produce.

They raised slogans against the government for not paying heed to their repeated calls for fixing a reasonable rate for their produce.

The protesters marched from Jinnahgate to the local press club where their leaders told reporters that paddy growers were being denied a reasonable rate despite the fact that the price of various paddy verities in the international market had gone high and rice growers in other parts of Asia were getting given the benefit of this upward trend by their respective governments.

They warned that they would intensify their protest if their demand for a higher price of their produce was not considered and accepted.

SUKKUR: The growers whose lands are fed through the Narli minor (irrigation channel) staged a protest demonstration in front of the Ghotki deputy commissioner’s office at Mirpur Mathelo on Monday against acute shortage of water in their areas.

The protesters, led by Mohammed Ali Shar, Mohammed Zaman Shar and others, raised slogans against the irrigation officials concerned for allegedly causing an artificial shortage of water.

They told local reporters that water being released in Narli minor was not reaching their lands at the tail-end due to which they had been suffering heavy losses.

They said that farming was the only source of livelihood for hundreds of families living in the tail-end areas but unavailability of water had turned their lands barren.

They alleged that the irrigation officials concerned were selling away the canal water to the influential landowners by diverting it to their lands. The big landowners had also laid illegal watercourses, they complained.

They urged the higher authorities to take notice of the illegal practice and take effective steps against such landowners and dishonest officials in order to save lands of the affected growers.

Published in Dawn November 15th, 2016