HYDERABAD: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Saturday said that the community affected by the Gorano reservoir [being built by the Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company near Gorano village in Tharparkar] was being provided employment, clean drinking water and accommodation. “If some people are displaced in the mines area, they are given alternative accommodations; and the same strategy is replicated for the people affected by the reservoir,” he said while speaking to the media after addressing the 17th convocation of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) here on Saturday.

“What Engro is doing is sponsored by the Sindh government, which has 54 per cent shares in the SECMC. The people affected by the reservoir [are] being taken care of,” he said. He added that “unfortunately, some [elements] are exploiting it [issue]”.

Mr Shah said that the Sindh government was working on the establishment of the ‘Sindh Food Authority (SFA)’ after the relevant legislation done recently. The domain of the provincial and local government department was being finalised, he added.

The chief minister said that a competent administrator would head the proposed SFA. The government was not unmindful of adulterated food available in the market, he said, and pointed out that the government was focusing on prevention as well under its ‘Saaf Suthra Sindh’ programme.

MITHI: A representative delegation visited the site of a controversial effluent reservoir at Gorano village in Tharparkar and the camp of protesting Tharis in Islamkot on Saturday.

The delegation comprised dozens of rights activists, writers, intellectuals and leaders of various civil society organisations who included Amar Sindhu, Dr Arfana Mallah, Syma Jaffery, Dr Muneer Bhurgari, Mitho Mehri, Dodo Chandio, Hassan Musarat Shah and Ameer Mandhro coming from Hyderabad, Karachi and other cities and towns of Sindh.

They expressed solidarity with the protesting Tharis in their campaign against the reservoir and full support to their stance that the reservoir meant to store effluent being extracted from coal mines would destroy their cultivable lands and the ecology of a vast area of the region.

They criticised the government and the mining company that has been executing the reservoir project for paying no heed to the local population’s distress calls and their sustained campaign now running into its 14th month.

They alleged that the company was trying to “befool people” by sponsoring visits by journalists and activists to the reservoir site to show to the world that the reservoir was beneficial to the region and its population. They called for such visits by independent journalists so that reality could be made known to the world.

The delegation also visited Petambar Maheshwari and his family in Mithi to condole with them the death of his two sons who were shot dead during a robbery of their business outlet in the city last month.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2018