MULTAN, June 24: An influential landlord of Lodhran district has made the lives of farmers miserable, an ex-serviceman alleged on Monday.
Iftikhar Hussain, 80, told Dawn that he and several other small growers had been struggling for a long period to get their due share of canal water but to no avail.
He said that in the year 1928 the British government awarded 25 acres to his father in Dunipur tehsil for his military services.
For sometime, Iftikhar cultivated the land allotted to his father. Later, he joined army and took part in the 1948, 1965 and 1971 wars against India. The government allotted land in his village (Chak 379/WB) to landlord Malik Dost Muhammad Awan under the tubewell scheme in 1958.
Iftikhar was in the army and Dost Muhammad grabbed his 25 acres. For the following 11 years, Iftikhar ran from pillar to post to get his land vacated but to no avail. In the early days of Gen Yahya Khan, Maj-Gen A.U. Mitha was posted as martial law administrator of Multan. As Iftikhar had fought the Kashmir war under Gen Mitta.
On the report of a team, Gen Mitha ordered evacuation of his land from the influential landlord. Iftikhar got possession of his land but his ordeal did not end. Dost Muhammad started using canal water, depriving the small growers of the village of their due share.
Quoting a notification of the Board of Revenue, Iftikhar said that beneficiaries of tubewell schemes could not obtain canal water. According to notification No 1877/7/69/3596 CLV dated 08-10-1969, they can use canal water only if the underground water was brackish. In this case, they have to pay commercial rate of the canal water.
Iftikhar said that for the last 30 years the Awans had been using canal water for the land allotted to them under the tubewell scheme.
He alleged that during the era of Nawaz Sharif, Awan family managed to get approved canal water for their tubewell scheme lands.
Iftikhar said the Awan family had always returned from a provincial assembly seat.
He said applications of several other beneficiaries of the tubewell scheme to use canal water had been rejected. Owing to persistent non-availability of irrigation water and high cost of irrigation through tubewell he had to rent out his 25 acres on nominal price and unable to make both ends meet. He urged the president and the Punjab governor to order the authorities concerned to save him and other small growers of the area from the highhandedness of the feudal lords of the area.