MIRPURKHAS, March 2: Hundreds of villagers and growers staged a demonstration in Umerkot on Sunday to protest against what they called the policy of exploration pursued by the British Gas and Petroleum exploring company.

The protestors led by Munawar Ali Maher raised slogans against the BGP authorities.

Munawar, Mohammad Bux, Yar Mohammad and Usman Khaskheli said that blasts carried out by the company for exploration and movement of their heavy vehicles had damaged their standing corps.

They alleged that the company was polluting the environment of the area. They said it was neither carrying out any development work in the area, nor following the petroleum policy.

BGP is operating in Umerkot district for three years and has set up camp at Kantio but no development project for the betterment of this district has so far been launched.

SUBSTANDARD MATERIAL: Hundreds of PPP workers and local people staged a demonstration and blocked the Kunri-Mirpurkhas road on Saturday to protest against the use of substandard material in the construction of the entrance gate to the Kot Ghulam Mohammad town.

Protesters led by Shamsher Ali Kaimkhani, Mohammad Hanif, Roshan Ali Shah and Mir Ali Mohammad Talpur, carrying placards and banners, blocked the main road, which led to suspension of traffic for an hour.

The people were demanding of the authorities to take immediate notice, stop the ongoing work and order a high-level inquiry into this matter.

They warned that they would not allow the use of substandard material. PPP MNA-elect Mir Munawar Ali Talpur and SPO Kot Ghulam Mohammad Kanbho Khan Mari reached the spot and assured the people that the contractors would not be allowed to use substandard material in the construction.

DDMA: Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s MPA-elect Faheem Ahmed Altafi has said the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) would play a vital role in saving lives of the people and agriculture production in the district in the event of a calamity.

He was speaking as a chief guest at a mobilisation workshop for effective role of district disaster management authority (DDMA) Mirpurkhas held under the aegis of an NGO Sindh Agricultural and Forestry Workers Coordinating Organisa-tion here on Satur-day.

He said that district Mirpur-khas is situated at tail end of the Nara canal, it also face disaster conditions regarding heavy rainfall, acute shortage of water, devastation of agriculture crops and overflow of LBOD drains.

He said the district disaster management authority is very important institution to deal with natural disasters.

Zila Naib Nazim Zafar Ahmed Kamali said the district disaster management will soon be set up in Mirpurkhas and it will function for the safety of people and property.

He deplored that in past following heavy rains and overflow of the LBOD drains, standing crops were destroyed while thousands of people were rendered homeless.

He announced that the disaster management would be established at union council level in the district while active local people would be included in it.