DADU, July 24: Sita Road and Khairpur Nathan Shah towns observed a complete strike on a call given by the Abadgar Association on Monday in protest against what it called “artificial” shortage of water in the waterways fed by the Rice and Dadu canals.

During the strike, a large number of farmers led by Ghulam Shabbir Chandio and Saifur Rehman Arain staged a demonstration on Sita-Dadu road bringing the traffic to a halt. They blamed irrigation officials for the shortage of water in their area.

In Khairpur Nathan Shah, hundreds of farmers, peasants and activists of JSQM, Awami Tehreek (AT), SNF, STP, JUI and PPP marched from Mir Hassan Gadhi village to the town and then staged a demonstration on the bypass.

Led by Syed Lal Shah (AT), Hafiz Hajan Leghari (JUI) and the leaders of Abadgar Association, Abdul Rehman Bhurgri, Ghani Qureshi and Ghulam Mohammad Gadhi, the protesters said that shortage of water was causing paddy seedlings to wither.

They alleged that the irrigation officials had sold their share of water to the influential landlords of Larkana and Shahdadkot districts hence the shortage at the tail-end.

They appealed to Sindh irrigation minister to take notice of the worsening situation and ensure tail-end farmers get their share of water.