SUKKUR, Nov 13: Irrigation officials and the SIDA staff in a raid the other day disconnected at least 60 suction pumps which had been illegally installed by landlords to irrigate their crops in Kandhra and Salehpat towns.

The irrigation officials impounded the machines and also lodged water theft cases against the landlords concerned.

The irrigation officials said that water was being pumped from the Nara Canal by the landlords.

The landowners said that they were not receiving a single drop of water in their 18 Dehs as a result of which their cotton crops on 35,000 acres were being destroyed.

They said that if the irrigation staff failed to provide them water, then they were left with no alternative but to get water with the help of suction pumps.

They said that if their motors and pumps were not returned by Nov 15 and the cases against them were not withdrawn then they would hold a sit-in at the Aror bypass.

Earlier several growers, including Ghulam Ali Talpur, Mir Akhtar, and Waris Baloch, addressed a press conference in Rohri in which they demanded the Sindh governor and the secretary, Irrigation, to visit the area to see for themselves that they were getting no water for their lands.

DISTRICT NAZIM: The Zila Nazim, Sukkur, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, held an open katchery at the union council, Hingoro, in Pano Aqil Taluka on Tuesday.