BAHAWALPUR: The Punjab irrigation department has agreed conditionally to supply 250 cusecs of water, as per the approved quota, to the four feeding distributary canals to irrigate hundreds of thousands of acres in Cholistan areas.

The 250-cusec water quota was approved for these four canals during the Musharraf regime in 2004 but it was seldom implemented by the later governments, adding to the sufferings of the farmers of these semi-desert areas.

This was stated by Bahawalpur Zone Irrigation Chief Engineer (CE) Khalid Bashir here on Monday talking to Dawn.

The chief engineer says the government, taking a serious notice of the unavailability of canal water in Cholistan, that is even used for drinking and cooking for the inhabitants of these areas, took the decision to implement the water quota.

In this respect , he says, a video-link meeting chaired by Punjab irrigation secretary was recently held with the chief engineers concerned in attendance.

According to him, the high-level meeting decided that if the Lower Bahawal Canal was going to have 4000 cusecs water capacity, 250 cusecs could be spared and released in the four Cholistan canals -- Salari, Dahri, Derawar and Ladamsar canals.

Mr Bashir says the four canals were actually floodwater channels, to be used only in case of a flood-like situation in the country after heavy rainfalls. But, he says, owing to the recent prolonged dry spell, these four canals have dried up since long, prompting the affected farmers to stage protests against water shortage and to demand implementation of the approved water quota of 250 cusecs.

MINOR BOY RAPED: A minor boy was allegedly raped by a man at Basti Jhoke in the limits of Saddar police station on Monday.

According to the first information report (FIR No.385/22) registered under section 377 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the complaint Muhammad Sajid, his seven-year-old son was allegedly raped by the suspect, who managed to escape from the scene.

Police referred the boy to hospital for his medical examination and started conducting raids to arrest the suspect.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2022