LARKANA: A shutter-down strike was observed on Thursday in Warah and a demonstration was held in Mirpurkhas in protest against the acute shortage of irrigation water in Warah Canal and its branches.
The strike was observed on the call of the Jeay Sindh Mahaz-Riaz (JSM-R).
In Larkana town, JSM-R chairman Riaz Chandio led a sit-in at Fazil Rahu Chowk which later on was joined by different groups.
A big protest rally was taken out, which after marching on different routes, culminated at Fazil Rahu Chowk where the protesters staged the sit-in, blocking vehicular traffic on the Warah-Hamal road for four hours.
Criticising the silence of the elected representatives, the protesters raised slogans in favour of their genuine issue of water shortage.
They said it was high time for cultivating wheat crop, but unfortunately growers and small khatidars (tenants) were anxiously looking for water.
Speaking to the protesters, Riaz Chandio and others alleged that a mindset had planned to ruin Sindh by not releasing actual amount of water in the River Indus for Sindh while dams were being built on it. “We would not allow anyone to turn the fertile land of Sindh into barren belts,” they said.
Mr Chandio warned Punjab to stop hatching conspiracies or face the music, adding that there was no dearth of irrigation water in the country.
He quoted Federal Minister Faisal Vawda who had admitted on the floor of the house that Punjab was involved in stealing Sindh’s water while former president Asif Ali Zardari and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had conceded that Sindh was not getting water according to the 1991’s Water Apportionment Accord. “If [you are] ineligible [with apparent reference to the PPP leaders], you should better step down and go home,” he asked the rulers.
He said Sindh’s people were forced to live in starvation for which he described the rulers of Sindh as inept. He blamed the elected representatives of Warah for intentionally creating a water crisis.
They [elected representatives of the area] had perhaps turned a blind eye towards the month-long protest of the people, he said.
They alleged that irrigation personnel were providing water to irrigate influentials’ land through saline water drain.
They claimed that hundreds of families fearing famine had migrated from the area, therefore water should immediately be released in Warah Canal and its branches and tributaries to save the local population and agriculture.
Mr Chandio announced to besiege the Larkana commissioner office on Nov 23 over the issue, saying that different political parties would be invited to join in against the drastic shortage of irrigation water in Warah Canal and its offshoots.
Pakistan Peoples Party (Workers) chairman Dr Safdar Abbasi, Ms Nayab Sarash Chandio, Gulzar Mangyani, Maulvi Mohammed Siddiq Mangnejo and others also addressed the protest rally in Warah.
In Mirpurkhas, scores of tail-end growers of the sub-division of Naokot held a demonstration here in the town against the acute shortage of irrigation water in their Fazal and Akota minors on Thursday.
Carrying banners and placards, growers led by Mushtaque Tungri, Bachal Tungri, Mustafa Jatt and Dost Mohammad raised slogans against the XEN concerned, and other officials of the irrigation department.
Talking to reporters, they alleged that irrigation department officials concerned and officers had sold their share of water to influential landlords having fields at the heads of the minors.
As a result after three weeks of closure of their minors, water did not reach the tail end.
Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2018
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.