BADIN, Oct 12: More than a month after heavy rains devastated Badin, the district administration is yet to drain out water from villages and farmland.

Stagnant water is posing a serious threat to people's lives and spoiling chances of cultivation of Rabi crops.

Fourteen-year-old Shaukat Chandio drowned in saline water accumulated near Yousuf Bhoat village of Tando Bago taluka on Wednesday. Seven to eight feet of water is standing around the village.

Shaukat was going to his farm when he slipped on the bank of a saline water drain and drowned.

Zahid Bhoat, 24, of the village had drowned at the same place 15 days ago.

Villagers marched in a procession to Shadi Large town and held a sit-in there. They demanded registration of a criminal case for negligence of the authorities concerned.

The protesters told Dawn that the district administration was doing nothing to dewater the villages.

Meanwhile, people of Bokhi taluka of Badin have alleged that the district administration was doing nothing to clear their village although the water could easily be released into the main drain.

They accused an influential landlord of releasing water from his land and not letting the villagers to release water into the drain.

Growers said the administration's failure to drain out of water was delaying preparation for the Rabi crop.

When contacted, DCO Kazim Jatoi said he had directed officials of the irrigation department and the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority to plug breaches in canals and saline water drains after the water flow receded.

Dewatering of villages would be undertaken after the breaches were plugged, he said.

TENT VILLAGE: The Ummah Welfare Trust has set up a tent village here and is providing medical facilities to rain-affected people.

It has supplied food to 43,000 families and distributed 1,750 dry ration packets.

The trust has also provided more than 1,000 tents to people who have lost their homes.

Iftikhar Ahmed, a representative of the Trust, told Dawn that the trust would continue its service till the rehabilitation of the affected people.