Compensation plea: Fauji Fertiliser, govt’s reply sought

Company accused of causing breach in canal that led to inundation of farms, houses in 10 villages.

RAHIM YAR KHAN:

Rahim Yar Khan district administration and police, Irrigation Department officials and Fauji Fertiliser Company were on Thursday issued notices by the Lahore High Court in a petition seeking compensation for damage done to crops and houses in 10 villages along Ahmed Wah canal following a breach.

In his petition to the LHC’s Bahawalpur bench, Falak Sher Langa has accused the FFC of causing the 30-feet breach in the canal and the Irrigation Department officials of negligence.

He said sugarcane and cotton crops and houses in 10 villages in the surroundings of the canal were inundated following the breach, near marker no 7879, some months ago. He demanded that the FFC and the Irrigation Department be directed to compensate the affected villagers.

Petitioner Langa said Irrigation Department official on duty at the canal rest house was about two to three hours late in arriving at the scene following the report of the breach. He said the villagers had filled the breach on their own by the time the officials arrived at the scene. “They (the officials) cussed at us in response to our complaint about the loss we had suffered due to the breach,” he said.

The petitioner said that in their report about the incident, the Irrigation Department officials later accused the affected villagers of having caused the breach instead of fixing responsibility on the FFC.

Langa said the breach was caused after the FFC laid some cable through the canal bed. He said the banks of the canal near marker no7879 weakened after they were knocked down and reconstructed by the FFC workers.

The LHC Bahawalpur bench has directed the FFC general manager, senior Irrigation Department officials and the district administration officer and the district police officer to submit their replies on the matter to the court.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2012.