HYDERABAD, July 25: Sindh Abadgar Board president Abdul Majeed Nizamani has expressed concern over frequent breaches in canals and erosion in the banks of the River Indus and held the provincial irrigation officials responsible for the situation.

In a statement issued here on Friday, he demanded that the growers should be paid compensations for the losses caused by the canal breaches.

He said that the erosion of the embankments of the river and frequent breaches in canals and channels exposed the inefficiency of the irrigation department.

Mr Nizamani deplored that due to the breaches, crops standing on tens of thousands of acres of land and a large number of villages had been destroyed.

He demanded that a high-level investigation should be conducted into the corrupt practices of the irrigation department officials and its divisional engineers should be asked to furnish a detailed list of payments made to contractors during June.

He further demanded that the misused amount should be recovered from the engineers, a detailed survey should be conducted through the local government and representatives of different farmers’ organisations.

The SAB chief said that after the rainy season, the embankments of the Indus, canals, channels, regulators, Sim Nullahs and headworks of Guddu, Sukkur and Kotri barrages should be repaired.

He also demanded that for ensuring Rabi season, farmers should be given loans and financial assistance for the purchase of seed, fertilizers and preparation of land.

He said that prior to the rains, the SAB had reminded the Sindh government and the irrigation officials time and again that notwithstanding acute shortage of water, breaches were taking place in the channels but the authorities had paid no attention to the complaints.

He said that the irrigation officials had provided an opportunity to Punjab to accuse Sindh of mismanagement of the irrigation system.

HCCI: Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Abdur Razzaq Memon has hailed the trade policy announced by the federal government and said that it would give an impetus to industrial and commercial activities.