HARIPUR, Nov 23: Farmers of several villages of union council Mankraye are experiencing an acute shortage of irrigation water for about a week as some influential people are alleged to have diverted the water share of these villages to the non-perennial water channel, according to farmers and local government representatives.

A delegation of farmers met the State Minister for Finance Omer Ayub Khan and apprised him of their problems. Talking to newsmen, Sufi Mohammad Nazir, Haji Abdus Salam, councillors Mohammad Din Khan and Maulana Attiq-ur-Rehman said that according to the Rawaj-i-Aabpashi over 10 villages of the union council of Mankraye were being irrigated from the natural water source of the river Dorr for decades.

But they lamented that some influential landlords whose farmlands were irrigated through the non-perennial channel had deprived a vast population of their right and diverted their share of water to the non-perennial channel illegally. "Our farm animals are dying because not a single drop of water was available in the river," said Sufi Nazir.