HYDERABAD, Aug 6: The Sindh Abadgar Board has observed that introduction of a water rotation programme despite flood in the River Indus is a conspiracy against the province.

The board’s working committee at a meeting held here on Saturday said it had been warning the government since 2002 that lawlessness, inefficiency, corruption and political interference had caused more harm to the agriculture sector of Sindh than the shortage of water.

The meeting, presided over by Abdul Majeed Nizamani, claimed that no crop of Sindh had achieved 70 per cent production since 2000.

It was of the opinion that transfers up to the high level and deployment of Rangers were not the solution to the problems. It demanded that a high-level autonomous committee, comprising in-service and retired irrigation officers, agriculture and irrigation scientists, growers and experts from law and finance departments, should be appointed to find out a permanent solution to the problems confronting the agriculture sector.

The meeting called for a judicial inquiry into the continued water rotation programme and punishment to officers concerned.

It further demanded that recoveries made from farmers, who were hit by the water rotation programme between 2000 and 2005, should be refunded and further recoveries should be stopped unless water supply to farmers at tail-ends of channels was restored.