HYDERABAD, July 1: A large number of growers of Massu sub-division, Hyderabad Taluka, continued their token hunger strike outside the local press club for the second consecutive day on Tuesday in protest against acute shortage of water in the Massu irrigation sub-division water channels.

Led by the leaders of the growers action committee, Zameer Halepoto and Abdur Rehman Junejo, they raised slogans against the SDO and demanded the removal of superintendent engineer, Mr Mughal.

They said that the Rohri Canal was flowing full but no water was being released in the Massu sub-division channels as the irrigation officials were demanding money.

They said that they had been facing shortage for the last four years and even drinking water was not available in the Massue sub-division water channels.

Sources told Dawn that the poor growers were being crucified at the altar of the on-going cold war between the XEN concerned and the superintendent engineer.

It will be relevant to mention here that two huge breaches had occurred in the Rohri Canal during the past two years due to the excessive flow of water in the canal creating widespread devastations in Bhitshah and Oderolal area inundating thousands of acres of standing crops and destroying scores of villages.

Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Mamnoon Hussain also visited the hunger strike camp of the growers and expressed full support of his party to them.

SIT-IN: A large number of employees of the highways department under the banner of the All Pakistan Clerks Association locked up their offices here on Tuesday and held a sit-in outside the Shahbaz Building in protest against the shifting of the chief engineer’s office to Sukkur.