SANGHAR, Dec 10: Hundreds of farmers, whose land lies at the tail-end of the Toori Shakh, blocked Sanghar-Mirpurkhas road at Gurang Bungalow on Tuesday against the water shortage in the waterway.

Talking to newsmen, Ahmed Khan, Shams Nizamani, Choudhry Nazeer and others said that due to continuous water shortage, they were unable to sow wheat during the current Rabi season.

For the last two months, they said, water was released into the Toori Shakh only for a few days and that too was taken away by some influential landlords, whose lands lied at the head of the water channel, by tampering their modules after bribing the area irrigation officials.

The protesting farmers staged a sit-in on the road for more than four hours as a result vehicular traffic remained suspended on the busy road.

The road was cleared after the DSP, headquarters, and the SDO, irrigation, arrived at the site and assured the protesters that the water supply to the Toori Shakh would be restored soon.

Sanghar district Naib Nazim Dr Mehmood Ahmed Rajput also arrived on the spot and assured that the tampered watercourses would be closed.

An official of irrigation department, when contacted, said that the water supply to the Toori Shakh was restored on last Sunday after seven days due to the water rotation programme.