HYDERABAD, July 21: District Coordination Officer Aftab Ahmed Khatri on Saturday directed irrigation officers to check the illegal practice of digging up sand from the Giddu protective bund as well as loop bund and remove encroachments.

Mr Khatri said while inspecting the bund that irrigation officials should carry out round the clock vigilance on the bund and take steps to soak loop bund. The timely steps could help the bund withstand pressure of floodwaters, he added.

Latifabad Taluka Nazim Sabir Hussain Kaimkhani, who accompanied the official, told the DCO that the illegal practice of digging up sand from inside the bund had greatly weakened the embankment. If the practice was not stopped it could lead to breaches during expected floods, he said.

The executive engineer of Phulelli, Aijaz Shaikh, and engineer Manzoor Leghari informed the DCO that 4.3 miles long Giddu bund had been strengthened through stone-pitching. Seven spurs had also been raised to strengthen the embankments of Indus River to decrease pressure on Giddu bund.

HCCI: Member of Direct Taxes of the Federal Board of Revenue, Salman Nabi, on Saturday urged traders to derive maximum benefit from the universal self-assessment scheme, which he stressed was in the best interest of trading community.

He said at a post-budget seminar organised by the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) that the industrialists and traders should take advantage of the government’s tax policy, which he claimed was businessmen friendly.

The current budget had given many concessions to the corporate sector, he said and expressed the hope the concessions would help improve economic growth rate.

The HCCI President Yousuf Suleman, urged his colleagues to strengthen national economy by paying tax under the self-assessment scheme.

Former HCCI President Haji Mohammad Yaqoob complained that the government, by extending that many facilities and concessions to the corporate sector, had created a sense of deprivation among individual taxpayers.