TOBA TEK SINGH, Oct 11: Hundreds of farmers of the Chuttiana area held a demonstration outside the district coordination officer (DCO) office here on Saturday to protest the suspension of irrigation water supply to their farmlands for the last several days.

Demonstrators boarding on tractor-trolleys marched on Shorkot Road, Jhang Road and Kamalia Road to reach the district courts complex where they staged a sit-in for around an hour.

Since the DCO was not present in his office, District Officer for Revenue Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam assured the protesters that irrigation authorities would be instructed to ensure water supply to their areas.

Speaking on the occasion, union council No 40 naib nazim Chaudhry Mohsin Riaz and others claimed that stoppage of water supply at the tail-end of Jhang Branch Canal had affected their crops.

They said drinking water storage in Chaks 408-JB, 409-JB, 410-JB and 411-JB had also been consumed, and people and cattle were suffering from abdominal diseases as they had been forced to consume brackish water and there was no alternative available after irrigation water had also been suspended.

DEMO: Dozens of shopkeepers of Gadda Khana Chowk and their family members staged a demonstration on Saturday against officials of the Gojra Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) to protest demolition of their shops.

They set tyres ablaze and threw traffic out of gear in the chowk for an hour. They shouted slogans against the nazim and TMA staffers.

Tehsil Nazim Chaudhry Asad Zaman Cheema said shops which had been razed were constructed illegally by encroaching upon the TMA land a year ago.

He said shopkeepers and their relatives had not only attacked and tortured the TMA staffers, but also pelted stones on TMA vehicles for which a case would be lodged against them.