HARIPUR, July 1: Local farmers staged a rally here to protest against the sale of spurious pesticides and acute shortage of irrigation water and urged the government to solve these problems.

The protesters were carrying placards and banners bearing slogans in favour of their demands.

Farmers, who marched from the Tehsil Council Hall to the local press club, said that the local administration was taking no action against the sale of spurious farm inputs while they also faced problems like high water tax.

They criticised the provincial government and said that it had allowed the construction of gravity flow project upstream on River Daur without the consent of the people of Haripur.

They said that the project would consume a major portion of the river water.

The project, they said, would destroy agriculture in 20 union councils, rendering about 6,000 acres of fertile land barren and thousands of unskilled farmhands jobless.

The farmers attributed the decrease in yields of citrus fruits, especially oranges in Khanpur, to shortage of irrigation water.

They said that the farmers were being deprived of water from the Khanpur Dam as a large part was being diverted to supply water to Islamabad and other industrial units.