HYDERABAD, May 17: The people of Kotri Taluka held a protest demonstration in the town on Saturday against the re-designing of the RBOD (Right Bank Outfall Drain) project.

The protesters carrying banners condemned the project saying that it would destroy the agricultural lands of the poor growers of Dadu district.

They also condemned the project on the grounds that its design had been deliberately changed as according to the original design the lands of ministers, bureaucrats and officials of the irrigation department would have been acquired.

The protesters started marching from the Shoro House and stopped at the Al-Madina Chowk where it was addressed by former MPA Haji Siddiqui Shoro, PPP MPA Ghulam Nabi Pirin Shoro (Siddiqui’s son), Councillor Ahadullah, Zulfikar Ali Shah (a grower), Altaf Hussain Al-Hussaini and Mukhtiyar Korejo (Taluka president of the Sindh People’s Students Federation).

The speakers said that it was a matter of life and death for the people of Dadu district, especially of Kotri Taluka, and added that their complaints were falling on deaf ears.

They vowed to continue their struggle till the project was shelved or executed according to the original design, contained in PC-1.

They said that the design of the project had been intentionally changed so as to destroy the lands of the poor growers, who owned 16 to 50 acres in the area.

They said that their protests would continue and more sit-ins would be held to put pressure on the authorities to revert to the original design of the project for its execution.

Lambasting the irrigation officials, they warned them not to take the lands of poor villagers only for getting commissions and kick-backs.

The speakers warned the people of Kotri city that their lives would be endangered because highly toxic water and chemical waste would be discharged through the RBOD.

They said that the people of Karachi were already being supplied water which was mixed with chemicals being discharged in the Kotri Begar feeder, and added that initially the ecology of the Manchar Lake was destroyed due to poisonous water being discharged in it.

They said that now the RBOD was being constructed which would be harmful for the people.

The speakers demanded that instead of the Thal canal and Kalabagh dam, the Sehwan dam should be constructed for the people of the area so that they could get water for their agricultural lands.

They said there was a time when 700,000 cusecs used to flow in the Indus River, and now there was so little water that almost the entire riverbed was visible to the naked eye.

They declared that they would leave no stone unturned in their struggle, and added that in fact they were even ready to go to jails.