MITHI: Villagers living in the area that falls within the proposed site for Gorano waste-water reservoir boycotted on Saturday a public hearing for the resurvey of the controversial reservoir’s site, arguing that officials of revenue department and Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company were only trying to “buy time” and were not serious in addressing their genuine fears.

The frustrated villagers led by advocate Leela Ram, Lakho Bheel, Anwer Ali Lodho, Allah Jurio Chachar, walked out of the venue for public hearing at Gorano camp office and resumed their protest outside the Islamkot press club.

The protest entered its 190th day on Saturday.

They told journalists that they rejected the new map prepared by the revenue officials because it had added new land to the reservoir site. They were informed seven months ago that land of 35 survey numbers of Gorano, Katan and Began Shah areas would be acquired for the construction of the reservoir. But the officials now disclosed that they had added 27 more survey lands of Kehari area to the reservoir site, they said.

On April 10 the officials told them that they were conducting a resurvey to measure the land but they did not have authentic maps and other documents necessary for the survey, they said.

They alleged that both the officials of the mining firm and the revenue department had no idea about their job and therefore, they would henceforth not attend any public hearing until the officials showed them ‘authentic’ maps and study reports.

They termed the resurvey of their land “a big fraud” being perpetrated to serve vested interests. They would not hand over documents of their land to the officials until and unless they were shown study reports and authentic maps, they warned.

Islamkot mukhtiarkar Abdul Ghaffar Lakheer told journalists that they were trying their best to persuade the protesting villagers to give them their documents so that they could start the process of resurvey and complete the work within stipulated time.

Shutter down strike in Chhachhro

Chhachhro town remained completely shut on Saturday on a protest call given by local leadership of Pakistan Peoples Party against the government’s failure to resolve the town’s civic issues. All shops, business centres and bazaars remained closed throughout the day.

PPP activists and townspeople who held a sit-in on Umerkot Road said that their town faced multiple issues which had not been resolved so far by the elected members of the area.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2017