News Blog

MIRPURKHAS Feb 1. Chairman farmer organization council FOC Sindh Javed Ahmed Junejo has threatened to hold protest demonstration at Sukkur Barrage on Feb 11, if the irrigation authorities did not release the required quantity of water in Nara canal till Feb 10^th as only 6500 cusec water discharge is being supplied in Nara canal head against its requirement of about 18000 cusec water discharge as result wheat and other crops are destroying as they were deprived of irrigation water for last one and half month because the Nara canal was closed for annual desilting and repair purpose and rotation was already being implemented in the Nara canal system. Speaking at a press conference here on Monday, he further said that irrigation officers are providing the water to their favorites SDOs as result many areas were deprived of water even thousands of fertile lands had been changed as barren in Nara canal command area . He announced that due to present situation abadgars would not pay of water tax (Aabyana). He lamented that about 2 lakh acres lands of Rohri canal was shifted to Nara canal about 5 years back but their water share was not approved in Nara canal. He regretted that concerned government officers were not taking legal action against the 400 lift machines illegally being operated at the banks of Nara canal in district Khairpur. He said that lakhs of cultivated acres in Sukkur, Khairpur, Nawabshah, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar, Umerkot and Tharparkar districts have been adversely affected due to acute shortage of water in Nara canal. He accused that chief engineer is deliberately supplying the more than quantity of water in Rohri canal instead to supply the water judiciously to both Rohri and Nara canal equally . He claimed that millions of rupees had been allocated for repair and desilting of Nara canal and its distributaries have been misappropriated by the irrigation officers as no desilting with the help of excavator machine was made in the Nara canal. He said that today XEN Mithrao canal invited him and said that there is very less quantity is being supplied to Mithrao canal as result he is only able to supply the water for drinking purpose. He accused that irrigation authorities have recruited 170 new employees but did not consult with farmer organization council and did not recruit the few new employees on its recommendation. He told that engineers are told that they are compelled to supply the more quantity of water in Rohri canal due to providing the irrigation water fully to lands of irrigation minister , while he added that officers are used the names of MNA Mir Munawar Ali Talpure and his wife MNA Faryal Talpure for supplying the water in more quantity but they (MNAs)  should check the officers whether they are misusing their names for getting their benefits. He demanded the Sindh government to appoint also another minister for irrigation belong to Nara canal sothat Nara canal might get its share water from Sukkur barrage otherwise the lower Sindh’s areas would suffer big loss automatically agriculture production of Sindh including wheat, cotton, sugar cane etc would be reduced 50 percent. He demanded the president Asif Ali Zardari and Sindh chief minister to take immediate notice , save the agriculture production of lower Sindh and ensure supply of required quantity of water in Nara canal to save the crops and justice to growers otherwise growers would be compelled to come at streets in protest to get their rights. 

MIRPURKHAS Feb 1. Schedule caste people residing in Sindh province for thousands of years as they belong to Drawar generation and passing their life without basic facilities even passing their life like nomadic or homeless people. The schedule castes are including Bheel, Kolhi, Meghwar, Oad, Jogi, Gurgulla, Maricha, Sami, Bagri etc while they are mostly residing in south Sindh as Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar, Umerkot, Sanghar, Tando Allahyar, Hyderabad, Badin etc. Chairman Citizen Action committee Mirpurkhas Kanji Rano Bheel advocate, Patel Shankar and Shremti Nihali, who are also belonging to schedule caste said that in tenure of Ziaul Haq , they were declared legally as schedule caste. Talking to newsman, they regretted that schedule caste people were passing life under the line of poverty as they are very poors and ratio of education is 5 to 6 percent in these castes. Only one percent are teacher or graduate but government did not yet give attention to provide them government job. They added that their majority always supported the democratic governments but due to presence of Jagirdars, feudal, Waderas in government they were always neglected. They including women and children have mostly become bonded labours and added that 20 percent their women are worked as servant in houses and cattle farms of feudal and Waderas. They accused that their young girls were forced by Waderas and feudal to embrace Islam and then marriage with them after which pardoned their arrears. Homeless life of their young men was passed as they were prepared their houses with woods, mud and bricks and they were mostly worked in agriculture field. They alleged that they (peasants) were not given their full rights in crop by feudal and Jagirdar. They are deprived of health facilities even they are not able to take medical treatment or medicine of fever. They further said that they were not independent to caste their votes with their willing as they were bound with feudal and Waderas to caste their votes under their directives. They expressed that 97 percent of them have no property or land, while they are made target of hatred by high caste Hindus. Separate arrangements for them was made on occasion of marriage, sad incident, public meetings etc. They added that today also note was fixed in the canteen of district bar association Sanghar as separate arrangement is there for vessels of schedule caste. They accused that many NGOs are working in Sindh particularly in Mirpurkhas district but unfortunately they are working only on paper. They said that schedule caste young boys and girls are deprived of education, handicrafts, jobs etc. Many of them had been implicated in false cases by feudal and Jagirdar and various of them were arrested while various of them are in jail as they were failed to get bail even they have no documents of properties for acquiring bail from the courts. They demanded the government to take strict notice of depriving schedule caste people from their legal rights , ensure proper education into their areas, government jobs to educated schedule caste young , protection for casting votes with their willing, ensure also medical treatment facilities on their door steps etc.