RAHIM YAR KHAN, June 15: Farmers of almost 70 villages of Sadiqabad tehsil sowed cotton in June due to the non-availability of canal water.

A spokesman for farmers welfare association, Chaudhry Yaqoob, told Dawn that the agriculture department had advised cotton sowing in May.

He said the main reason for water scarcity was that the military farms management at Chak 152-P, 157-P and 158-P had illegally widened watercourses and dug another channel.

When contacted, XEN (canals) Haji Abdul Qadeer Javed said the main Adam Sahaba distributary irrigated the maximum areas of Sadiqabad tehsil. From this canal, the Senawar minor and Chandrami sub-minor are fed which irrigate many villages, he said.

Mr Javed said 2,500-acre military farms were irrigated by RD-47498-R and RD-51870-R watercourses from Senawar minor and RD-6109-L and RD-8287-L from Chandrami sub-minor.

These channels were illegally widened besides digging RD-47800-L watercourse. The XEN said the military management did not permit the canal department officials to check these watercourses as a result the villages situated at the tail-end of Senawar minor and Chandrami sub-minor could not get their share of water.

Mr Javed said on May 29, 2002, Saeed Ahmad, the then XEN, sent a letter No 1841/42-R/G to Lt-Gen Tariq Wasim Ghazi at Core HQ, Karachi, in this regard but he did not respond. He said when two SDOs went to check the watercourses of military farms in May last year, the management allegedly beat them up.