HYDERABAD, Aug 7: The Sindh Abadgar Board at a meeting here on Saturday called for a high-level inquiry into one month late release of water to Sindh, which it said, was a flagrant violation of water accord.

The meeting, with SAB chairman Abdul Majeed Nizamani in the chair, demanded that Sindh be compensated for huge losses it would sustain on account of low crop yield.

The board invited the attention of President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujat Hussain that during the current season water was released at least one and a half month late and that too in a decreased quantity.

The meeting pointed out that there was a difference of two months in the sowing season of Punjab and Sindh. It said in Thatta and Badin districts paddy was sown from April 15 to June 30, while in Punjab, the same crop was cultivated in July and August.

The board observed this year on the lame excuse of water shortage, a small quantity of water was released for Sindh in June as a result growers of the Kotri barrage and the rice belt had suffered tremendous losses.

The meeting said Sindh, which normally produces 2,100,000 tons of rice, would not produce more than 900,000 tons due to an artificial shortage of water.

Similarly, the board claimed Sindh would not produce more than 200 million maunds of sugarcane although its normal production was 420 million maunds.

The meeting demanded that political and administrative interference in the water distribution be immediately stopped and right from the SDO to the secretary irrigation, honest officers should be appointed purely on the basis of merit.

The meeting lamented that Sindh's entire irrigation system had been paralyzed due to political and administrative interference.

The meeting noted that not a single water channel in Sindh was operating according to its design as a result breaches had become the order of the day and tail-end growers were shifting from their lands.

The meeting said it appeared as if the government simply did not exist in Sindh due to chaos, lawlessness, unemployment, poverty, hunger and disease.

The board alleged the deployment of rangers had further aggravated the situation.

The meeting demanded that water be released keeping in view the sowing schedule and Sindh be provided water till Nov to save the late crops.

The meeting said the entire province should be declared calamity-affected area this year and growers be exempted from the payment of taxes and levies in addition to the grant of loans at zero interest rate.

It said a few years back the contribution of agriculture sector to the GDP was 28 per cent which had been reduced to 23.7 per cent due to unjust distribution of water.