HYDERABAD, April 21: The Sindh Farmers Association has expressed concern over excavation of a new canal from the Chashma Barrage by the Punjab government in collaboration with Wapda to irrigate land in Rawalpindi and Gujar Khan.

It demanded that the new water projects be stopped forthwith, saying that they would render Sindh barren. It further demanded that Balochistan and the NWFP also be included in the 1991 water accord for sharing water shortages.

A meeting of the association was held in Qasimabad on Friday which also discussed problems of the farming community of Sindh.

It demanded of the sugar mills to pay dues of sugarcane growers by April 30 and warned that if they failed to do so, the growers would launch a protest movement against the mills.

Expressing concern over black-marketing of fertilisers by the dealers, the meeting called upon the government to take notice of the highhandedness of the fertilizer dealers.

It reminded the government that it had announced a subsidy on fertilizers but the dealers in interior of Sindh were flouting the government orders and selling fertilizers at high rates.

It called upon the government to appoint vigilance committees of growers at each district to ensure that the facilities officially announced for the growers were provided to them.

It said that the committees should be empowered to ensure that fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, insecticides and agricultural equipments were made available at fixed rates and that the tail-enders received water supply according to their official share.