KHAIRPUR, May 26: The breach in the Rohri Canal was plugged on Monday morning after it had expanded to 90 feet, causing damage to crops standing on 500 acres of land and about 200 houses.

Canal water inundated a Kutchi Abadi of Ranipur town, reached near the Ranipur Railway Station road and affected a mosque primary school.

During his visit, this correspondent observed that the water had reached near the wall of Ranipur Rural Health Centre and inundated a tube-well of the Salinity Control and Reclamation Project (Scarp).

The Jogi village has been washed away by the flooding water and its residents were compelled to sit under sky near the National Highway.

Members of the victim families told this correspondent that after inundation of their grain stock, they were facing starvation but no one from local administration had visited them or provided them with food.

Some villagers, who were busy in rescue operation, alleged that the breach had developed due to excessive supply of water to the Rohri Canal.

They said that normally about 14,000 cusecs of water was supplied to the canal but on Saturday night, excessive water was flown into it as a result its embankments could not sustain the pressure.

They also said that the canal had earlier developed five fissures between RD-192 and 198, which were repaired by the villagers but one of them at RD-193 later developed into the breach.

Meanwhile, as water supply to Rohri and Mirwah canals from the Sukkur Barrage has not been resumed till the filing of this report. The water supply was suspended on Sunday night to help to plug the breach.

If suspension of water supply continued, it could adversely affect crops in Khairpur, Kot Diji, Thari Mirwah and Faiz Ganj talukas, said concerned growers.

Meanwhile, taking immediate notice of the loss caused by the breach, Sindh Chief Minister Ali Mohammad Mahar announced in Karachi on Monday that Rs 2 million grant had been sanctioned to provide relief to the affected villagers, reports APP.

The chief minister directed the senior member, Board of Revenue, and the relief commissioner, Sindh, to immediately release the relief amount.

He directed the departments concerned to extend help to the affected people, shift them to relief camps and provided them with medical treatment, medicines and food.