HYDERABAD, Aug 4: Experts and consultants were reluctant to work on different projects in the interior of the province due to poor law and order situation, said former secretary irrigation, Idris Rajput, on Saturday.

Mr Rajput said at the monthly meeting of the Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) that it was wrong to say that the influential people had diverted flow of water in Larkana and Dadu in order to save their lands. The meeting was presided over by SAB President Abdul Majeed Nizamani.

“In fact the flow was so strong that it just overtopped the embankments of flood protective bunds,” said the former secretary adding that the floodwater from Balochistan was a natural calamity, which the embankments could not withstand.

He said that corruption in Sindh was more prevalent than other provinces. In past the amount of bribe used to run into thousands but now it ran into millions. Desilting of canals was part of such corruption, he said.

He said that 100 per cent cultivation of lands between Hyderabad and Moro was proof people were using more than their actual share of water although it should not be beyond 27 per cent, he said.

He criticised the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (SIDA) and said that he had refused to work with SIDA when he was offered a post in the authority. It was a useless body and he was writing against it as well, he said.

Later, he told journalists that FP embankment would be raised by six feet in view of recent havoc caused by floodwater. Irrigation officials in Larkana and Dadu had made better arrangements to combat floodwaters but the current was too strong for the embankments, he said.

He said that the irrigation officials had correctly diverted water wherever needed. The telemetry system was not working to the satisfaction of irrigation experts and growers, he said and added that he had no complaints against inter-provincial water distribution formula.