TOBA TEK SINGH, Dec 7: Despite being known for producing the bumper wheat crop in the district, the irrigation water requirement of Toba farmers have never been met for the last three decades. The subsoil water in the district is brackish, with the only exception of a belt near Kamalia on the river Ravi, where farmers use tubewell water for cultivation.

Since most of villages are situated on tail-end of Jhang and Gogera canals, scores of farmers fail to sow wheat as warabandi starts in the wheat-sowing months of November and December.

The water supply restored for a few days in these two months never reaches the villages because the influential growers of Faisalabad and Toba districts steal water for irrigating their farmlands after creating canal breaches.

About a year ago, farmer organizations were formed under the PIDA while a complete water distribution plan was given to these bodies for various minor canals, but they also failed to check the water theft.

Former MPA Mian Muhammad Rafiq said that elected representatives took no interest in getting the required water supply share for the district.

While Jamaat-i-Islami district amir Dr Zahid Sattar claimed that ruling party leaders were involved in the water theft and poor farmers were not given their due share.

Former PPP leader Qazi Ghiasuddin Janbaz said that former parliamentarians of the district had never brought the water shortage issue to the notice of rulers.

He said the condition had become so worst that young farmers were abandoning the cultivation profession and were looking for small jobs in various towns.

Pakistan Kissan Committee central president Chaudhry Fateh Muhammad said that farmers and their cattle were forced to use brackish underground water in the absence of canal water in Khikha and Chuttiana areas. As a result, he said they were suffering from various abdominal diseases.

Former MNA Hamza gave out that villagers of Chak 278-RB (Bhalair), situated at the tail-end of Rakh Branch Canal, in Gojra area had started migrating to other areas as farmers had not been supplied an inch of water for the last several months.

He said the Irrigation department staff was also helpless to check the water theft owing to the non-cooperation of the local police.

Mr Hamza said that chief engineer Qazi Muhammad Anwar had informed the Faisalabad DCO and the DIG that the wheat sowing was in full swing, but few landlords of Chak 272-RB had diverted the water supply to their land. Consequently, the water supply to downward areas had completely been stopped.

The chief engineer, he said, had also apprised both the officials that 75 and 77 cases had been registered against water thieves in Chak Jhumra and Dijkot police stations, respectively, but no action has so far been taken against them.

The former MNA also criticized the government for imposing a ban on public meetings due to which farmers were unable to register their protest over frequent water thefts.

District Nazim Chaudhry Abdul Sattar said that he would inform the Punjab chief minister about the situation while strict action would be taken against water thieves.