HYDERABAD, July 10: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture has criticized the closure of canals and water rotation programme during the flood season. At a meeting held here on Sunday, participants said when villages and vast tracts of land were being inundated due to flood in the Indus River, the rotation programme had not been ended in the lower Sindh.

The meeting demanded that the water rotation programme should be immediately ended because it was adversely affecting crops of paddy, sugarcane, tomatoes and chillies.

The meeting demanded that strict action should be taken against irrigation officials who have introduced water rotation programme during the flood season.

In another resolution, the meeting welcomed announcement by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz granting exemptions to growers for the payment of bank loans upto Rs100,000.

It, however, regretted that the farmers of Badin were totally ignored who had also suffered like the growers of Thatta.

It demanded that the loan exemption package should also be announced for the growers of Badin.