MIRPURKHAS, Dec 9: The Sindh secretary for agriculture has said 35,000 watercourses will be lined in the province under the national programme at a cost of Rs22 billion in four years.
Speaking at a meeting to review the pace of work of watercourse lining in the district on Thursday, the secretary, Sabhago Khan Jatoi, said the programme aimed at stopping wastage of water.
District Nazim Pir Shafqat Hussain Shah Jilani presided over the meeting which was attended by the DCO, director general, agriculture extension, taluka nazims, growers, landlords and irrigation, revenue and agriculture officers.
Mr Jatoi said work on lining of watercourses was going at a rapid pace and the government had so far released Rs800 million for the purpose. He further said farmers' organizations would supervise the lining work, adding that Rs10 million would be given on behalf of the president to the district which excelled in watercourse lining.
The district nazim said under the programme, 164 more channels would be lined in the district. The DCO, director general, agriculture extension, and the EDO, agriculture, briefed the meeting about the progress of the work in the district.
Representatives of growers' association, Zahid Hussain Bhurgari, Mohammad Umar Bughio, Altaf Hussain Shah, Mir Haji Anwar Talpur, Yar Mohammad Baloch and others, gave their proposals for making the programme successful and highlighted problems of growers. Later, the agriculture secretary and the district nazim inaugurated the lining of a watercourse of the Mirpur Distributary.
GROWERS: Over 500 tail-end growers of the Saeedki Distributary took out a procession here on Thursday to welcome a decision of the managing director of the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority to suspend the farmers' organization of the distributary.
They reached at the press club in different vehicles and blocked the Mirpurkhas-Hyderabad road for some time. Speaking on the occasion, Syed Ali Ahmad Shah, Latif Arain, Haneef Nuhri, Syed Ismail Shah, Nazir Shaikh and others supported the decision.
They said they had been deprived of their share of water for two years. They alleged that the farmers' organization and landlords were involved in water theft. They said water was reaching at the tail-end of the distributary after suspension of the organization. They said the irrigation system should be handed over to the irrigation department and tail-end growers should be provided with their share of water.
PARAMEDICS: The Paramedical Staff Association took out a protest procession from the Mirpurkhas Civil Hospital on Thursday, demanding approval of service structure of paramedical staff.
Led by district association president Ghulam Rasool Jalbani, chairman Mukhtiar Khaskheli and general-secretary Mohammad Ramzan, the protesters marched through main roads of the town and raised slogans for acceptance of their demands.
Speaking on the occasion, the leaders demanded that the Sindh chief minister and the secretary for health should honour their promises of approving the service structure of the paramedical staff.