HYDERABAD, Dec 30: The Sindh water conference held here on Sunday under the aegis of the Sindh Water Committee, demanded of the government to shelve the greater Thal canal project.
A resolution, adopted at the conference, said that the canal was illegal, unconstitutional and immoral and it would convert Sindh into a desert.
Another resolution accused the agencies of producing bandits and patronizing feudal and tribal chiefs.
The conference demanded of the government to restore supremacy of law, eliminate the bandit factor, tribal disputes and inhuman custom of Karo-kari.
Through another resolution, it demanded that the income from the natural resources of Sindh — including oil, gas and coal — should be spent on welfare of the people of Sindh and 100 per cent employment should be given to the local people in the industrial units of the province.
The conference expressed concern over the inordinate delay in the beginning of sugarcane crushing season and decrease in prices of chili, tomato and other crops.
It demanded that as growers had suffered huge losses due to the water shortage, they should be granted exemption in the payment of land revenue and other agricultural taxes and government should make immediate arrangement for the export of surplus produce.
In yet another resolution, the conference demanded that the coming National Finance Commission award should be based on justice, fair play and equity.
Earlier, speakers at the conference criticized the rulers and Punjab for denying Sindh of its share of water.
SWC president and Awami Tehrik chief Rasool Bux Palijo said that according to international law, Sindh, being at the tail-endof the Indus, had the exclusive right over the river waters.
He said that no new canal, according to the law, could be constructed on the River Indus without the permission of Sindh but Punjab had ignored the law and violated a written agreement in this regard.
He said that Sindh also had a share in the waters of the Mangla Dam.
A leader of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, Khalid Mehmood Soomro, said that 100 religious scholars had signed a Fatwa (religious decree) stating that Sindh had the exclusive right over the waters of the River Indus.
The president, Sindh Abadgar Board, Abdul Majeed Nizamani, pointed out that according to official figures, the cultivation in Punjab during the current year was 104 per cent, in NWFP the cultivation was 101 per cent but in Sindh it was only 71 per cent.
He said that the agriculture sector of the province had suffered a loss of Rs27 billion during the last two years and during the current year it was likely to suffer a loss of Rs20 billion.
He demanded that the growers of Sindh should be given bank loans at zero per cent mark-up.
He further demanded that the induction of the non-technical people, who were being paid Rs1.2 million by the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority, should be stopped.
It was announced at the conference that a rally would be staged here on March 18 against the shortage of water.
Thousands of people from all over the Sindh province attended the conference.