HYDERABAD, Sept 25: A group of tail-end growers of Rahuki, Husri and Bilori minors, Massu irrigation sub-division, staged a protest demonstration and observed a hunger strike outside the press club here on Wednesday against the shortage of water.

Talking to newsmen, the growers’ representatives, Mohammad Ayub Burdi, Umaid Ali Pathan, Ahmad Khan Pathan, Haji Magsi and Mohammad Siddique Panhwar, said for the last two years, the tail- end growers were suffering due to the shortage of water as their crops had been destroyed.

They said they could not meet even the food requirements of their families and many of them had migrated from the area.

They alleged irrigation officials of creating artificial shortage of water and said water was being sold to influential landlords.

They said they had complained to the high officials of the irrigation department about the predicament of the tail-end growers but all in vain. They said the Sindh governor and the irrigation minister had announced the rotation programme was abolished yet, they deplored, water was not being released in the minors.

They regretted the government had failed to punish water thieves and irrigation officials despite repeated public announcements.

They appealed to the president, Sindh governor and the irrigation minister to immediately confiscate illegal pipes fixed in the Hyderabad Branch and Rahuki and Husri minors, abolish the rotation programme, repair watercourse 5-AL, Rahuki, in accordance with the Sindh High Court orders, and implement the approved scheme for the tail-end growers of Rahuki and Bilori minors.