HYDERABAD, Aug 4: Sindh Irrigation Minister Sardar Nadir Akmal Leghari has called upon officials to prepare a plan to ensure water supply to tail-end growers , saying there is a need for giving powers to farmers to administer the distribution of water under Sida's system.

The minister was given a presentation on the affairs of Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Administration and Left Bank Canal Area Water Board by the managing director of Sida, Ali Mohammad Baloch, and the director of the LBCAWB, Nazir Mughal, on Tuesday.

Mr Leghari said politicians and some bureaucrats of the irrigation department did not like Sida as under this system they feel their powers had been eroded. He said he wanted to get the irrigation system in Sindh revamped so there was no complaint from small and tail-end farmers regarding the shortage of irrigation water.

He said Sida's by-laws would be changed to give representation to small and tail-end farmers to ensure water supply to all. Responding to the points raised during the presentation, the minister said the government would negotiate with the Indus River System Authority to get due share of water under the water accord.

He recalled that the previous year from April to June there was a shortage to the extent of 27 per cent while during the same period this year, the shortage was 41 to 48 per cent. Yet, he said, complaints of shortage this year were less in comparison to the previous year. Ghafoor Nizamani, Haji Nawaz Memon, Umer Farooq, Ali Gohar Tunio also spoke on the occasion.

TAIL-END GROWERS: Tail-end growers of the Khmer Sari Shakh, Golarchi taluka, Badin district, have accused officials concerned of selling the irrigation water to influential growers.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Tuesday, Piral Khoso, Qadir Jat and Malik Ghulam Hussain said the water supply to tail-end growers had been withheld for the last two years.

They complained thousands of acres of land located at the tail-end of the Shakh had been rendered barren. They said they had made written complaints to authorities concerned but none of them had taken any notice of their plight. They appealed to the irrigation minister to personally visit the affected area and see lands without crop.