DADU, July 20: Water has not been supplied to the tail-end land of the Dadu canal and Johi Branch during the current Kharif season and , therefore, rice and cotton crops have not been cultivated in thousands of acres of land in Johi, Dadu, Bhan and Sehwan sub-divisions of the irrigation department.

This was confirmed during a survey conducted by this correspondent on Monday. Hafiz Mian Mohammad Pirzada, a farmer whose land is irrigated from direct outlet 1-AR of the canal, complained that for two months, no water had been released to the outlet. As a result, he said, he was not able to cultivate a single acre out of his 200 acres.

Another farmer of the area, Mumtaz Panhwar, said that the influential landlords with the help of the irrigation officials were stealing water through lift machines hence small farmers were deprived of water.

He said that he had cultivated cotton on 200 acres by irrigating them through tube-wells but now underground water had turned brackish. Yet another grower, Gul Khan, said that out of his 300 acres, fed through Pir Shakh in Bhan sub-division of the irrigation department, he had not cultivated a single acre for 12 months.

He said that when he complained to the irrigation authorities about shortage of water, the local irrigation officials lodged three cases of water theft against him. he farmers of Phakka - Haji Ahmed Lund, Mohammad Moosa and Naseer Ahmed - said that their waterway had dried up from head to tail and they were compelled to use tube-wells to water crops.

The farmers of Data Shakh - Saindad, Ghulam Haider, Imam Bukhsh and Mohammad Ali - said that due to wrong distribution of water, they had cultivated 20 per cent of their lands.

Habibullah Jamali of 17-RL and 18-RL of the Dara Shakh said that he could not have cultivated his 300 acres for one year. He complained that junior officers had been posted on key posts in southern division of the Dadu irrigation department on political basis, who were providing water to landlords after getting huge amounts as bribe.

Basheer Ahmed Thaheem, Ghulam Qadir and Qurban complained that no water had been released into the Dara Noonari, Lakha, Chinjani, Chinni and Khan Minors originating from the Johi Branch during the current season of paddy sowing. They appealed to the Sindh chief minister to direct the provincial irrigation minister and the secretary to provide them urgent relief.