HYDERABAD, Nov 12: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) on Sunday called for a judicial inquiry into causes that led to Naseer Canal developing a wide breach and punishment to the officers responsible for the damage.

An SCA meeting chaired by Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah observed that the water from the breach completely destroyed standing crops in Matiari and Tando Allahyar districts and inflicted billions of rupees of losses on the growers.

The breach also caused unnecessary delay in the sowing of wheat crop in Digri, Tando Jan Mohammad, Chambar, Matiari and Tando Allahyar after the irrigation department closed the canal to help plug the breach, the meeting said.

The meeting demanded that the department release water into the canal without further delay so that the growers could cultivate wheat and urged the federal government to file a claim for damages against the consultants of LBOD.

The faults in the LBOD’s design had caused the growers to suffer huge losses during the recent heavy rains.

The World Bank, too, had written to Pakistan government that faulty design had caused huge amount to go waste, the meeting said.

It was therefore high time the government filed damages claim against the LBOD consultants, the meeting urged, adding that the government should allocate no more money for the project and instead restore the old drainage system.

The meeting suggested that the siphon of Puran Dhand should be removed to release water into Shakoor Dhand and Runn Katchh and demanded that the funds released for the repairs of Rohri Canal should be immediately put to use to save the agriculture sector from further destruction.

Akhund Ghulam Mohammad Siddiqui, Mir Murad Ali Talpur, Anwar Bachani, Syed Aijaz Nabi Shah and Shahnawaz Shah attended the meeting.