HYDERABAD, June 4: The office-bearers of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) and Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) on Monday said the greater Thal canal project was never included in the 1991 Water Accord as was being propagated by “vested interests”.

The leaders of the two main growers’ organizations of the province were speaking at a news conference at the Hyderabad Press Club.

SCA president Syed Qamaruz Zaman Shah and SAB president Abdul Majeed Nizamani said the controversial greater Thal canal had been opposed by the Bombay presidency even before the separation of Sindh from Bombay on the grounds that it would hit the interests of lower riparian — Sindh.

They said these objections were upheld by the British government and added that the project was also considered and permanently shelved by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) at its meeting held on Aug 19, 1975.

They said in para-2 of the 1991 Water Accord, allocation of 117.35 MAF (million acre feet) of water had been made available season-wise to the four provinces.

They said that for water distribution, ten daily statements had to be prepared in accordance with the guidelines given in para-14 (b) of the water accord in consideration of the average system uses of different canal systems during 1977-1982.

They said the ten daily statements could obviously include only those canal systems which existed in 1982 or before that.

All the provinces, except Punjab, prepared the ten daily statements in accordance with these guidelines but Punjab “fraudulently” included the greater Thal canal in the statements which was neither operational nor sanctioned up to 1982, nay, till the signing of 1991 Water Accord.

The leaders of the growers said the Sindh government on Sept 13, 1991, objected to the provision of the greater Thal canal in the draft of the statements of Punjab and attached the objections with the working paper for consideration of the meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) scheduled for Sept 16, 1991.

They said it was stated in the objections that the canal was an unsanctioned scheme.

The Sindh government again raised the objection against the provision of greater Thal canal in the statements of Punjab at the meeting held by the secretary for water and power on Sept 17, 1991, and it was also requested that the ten daily statements of Punjab should be corrected accordingly.