HYDERABAD, Sept 25: The district council Hyderabad here on Thursday demanded that the government should shelve all water projects regarding which the province had serious reservations.

A resolution related to this was tabled in the house by Miran Muhammad Shah which was unanimously adopted by the house that also witnessed a walkout by its members to protest against the non-payment of honourarium to them.

The mover of the resolution said the province of Sindh had been facing a water shortage crisis and very recently it had begun witnessing some greenery in the region. Unfortunately, he said, attempts were being made to strip the province of this blessing.

He said the projects which were harmful to two provinces could not be considered feasible. He called for building those water projects which were not controversial.

The walkout was staged after Yousuf Qureshi said that members were not being paid honourarium. Proceedings were, however, resumed soon.

A woman councillor said that budgetary allocations made for women should be utilized for purchasing sewing machines to be distributed among deserving women.

Q Mohammad Hakim called upon the government to execute all development projects in the Hyderabad district through the Frontier Works Organization (FWO). He said the quality of projects, previously executed, remained below par and many roads were washed away during recent rains indicating that our works department did not have the ability to undertake development works efficiently.

He said development works should be handed over to the FWO.

The house also adopted the resolution regarding the terrible practice of children’s smuggling. A member told the house that the children were being used as camel jockeys in some Arab countries.

He said during the span of one month in Hyderabad 30 children hag gone missing mysteriously but human rights organizations and the police were not concerned about the issue.

He appealed to central, provincial and district governments to expose and punish people involved in the heinous trade.

Another resolution of Yousuf Qureshi condemned proposal of sending a 100-member delegation to Israel by the federal government and termed it a conspiracy against President Pervez Musharraf.

In another resolution Mr Qureshi called for rejecting the plan of converting an old and historic educational institution - Muslim High School - into a shopping center and asked the executive district officer (EDO) education to stop all types of works on such projects and submit a report before the house.