LARKANA, Feb 10: The government should conduct accurate surveys to determine the extent of damage in the drought-hit areas of Sindh besides chalking out a rehabilitation plan for the dislocated people.

This was stated by an eminent intellectual, poet and journalist, Anwer Pirzado, while delivering a lecture on Sunday on the “Khirthar of Sindh” arranged by the Larkana chapter of the Sindhi Adabi Sangat.

Criticizing the government for its apathy towards the drought-affected areas, Mr Pirzado said that worsening drought conditions were forcing people to migrate from the mountainous areas of Sindh.

Describing the mountains of Sindh as being the cradle of civilization, he said that the Karonjhar Range was billions of years old, adding that in his opinion water worship was the oldest form of religion in the area occupied by the Indus Civilization.

According to him, Khirthar Range was the evolutionary bed of the Sindh civilization as 40,000 years ago the waves of Arabian Sea washed the foothills at Kala Bagh, adding that the people of Sindh and Punjab were, at that time, settled in the mountains.

Chronologically, he said, the mountains of the Khirthar Range were 380 million years old, while other mountains in Sindh were seldom older than 193 million years old.

He said that the mountains of Sindh act as a catchement area for the southern Indus belt and the Khirthar Mountains had abundant mineral resources, adding that Sindh should fully explot these resources for the benefit of the province.

He said the drought, which had been persisting for the past seven years in the mountain ranges of Sindh, had brought a host of miseries on the people inhabiting these mountains.

Mr Pirzado said that there had been sparse rains and no floods since 1996 because of which sea intrusions had eaten up millions of acres along the eastern side of the River Indus.

Expressing concern over the depletion of Sindh’s water resources, he said that underground water, which once extended over 80 million acres, had turned brackish.

Criticizing over the state of affairs in Sindh, he said that the people of SIndh, who had been braving the worsening effects of drought, had been struck by inter-tribal clashes, which was dangerous.

The lecture was attended, among others, by Comrade Sobho Gianchandani, Aftab Surhiyo, Jam Jamali, Mumtaz Abro and Akhlaque Ansari.

SALARY: A group of daily-wage employees of the public health engineering held a demonstration here on Monday against the non-payment of 16-month salaries to them.

Carrying banners and placards, they chanted slogans outside the office of concerned engineers.

They alleged that the engineers of the public health engineering department, I and II, Larkana, had held up salaries of around 200 daily-wage employees, including watchmen and pump operators.