MIRPURKHAS, Feb 3: PPP MNA Nawab Yousuf Talpur has said that owing to the incompetence of the federal government, Sindh was deprived of its just rights.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Mr Talpur lamented that the provincial irrigation minister, Pir Sadruddin Shah Rashidi, had allowed some landlord to install two illegal direct outlets in the Mithrao Canal.

He said that the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (SIDA) was a good platform but some of its members had a negative approach and were busy in efforts to make it a failure.

He said that the landlords get undue share of irrigation water by tampering with the watercourses and easily obtained stay orders from the local courts for their temporary waterways.

He appealed to the chef justice of the Sindh High Court to issue directives to the lower courts not to issue stay orders in such matters.

He alleged that Punjab was getting more water than its share, adding that it was strange there was an acute shortage of water but cotton and other agricultural produce were having bumper crops.

Mr Talpur said that Sukkur and Khairpur districts were getting their share of water, while the tails of Mirpurkhas and Hyderabad districts were the worst affected.

He feared that if the situation continued, the people of rural areas would start migrating to the towns and cities.

He called upon the government to adopt a strategy for judicious distribution of water.

He said that small growers were being harassed by the ADBP for the recovery of dues, but the sugar mills in the district had not paid their dues to the growers since the last four years.

NFC AWARD: The provincial minister for fisheries and livestock, Manzoor Ali Panhwar, has said that the Sindh Assembly had passed a unanimous resolution regarding the NFC award, which would benefit Sindh as well as the federation.