Canal irrigation: ‘Water being stolen tail-end farms’

Labour and Farmers Unity announces protest drive against canal water theft.

BAHAWALPUR:

Influential farmers in Rahim Yar Khan and Sadiqabad are stealing canal water in collusion with the Irrigation Department, Labour and Farmer Unity District President Chaudhry Altaf Chaddhar said on Friday.

Chaddhar said canal water flowing to small farms at the tail-end of canals was inadequate for proper irrigation of the fields.

He said farmers with large landholdings used their influence with the Irrigation Department officials to get more water than their allocations.

He said small landowners were frequently deprived of their fair quota of canal water.

He said Labour and Farmers Unity would soon announce the date for the first corner meeting at Kot Sabzal in a protest drive against water theft. Chaudhry Ghazanfar Cheema said thousands of acres of land in areas like Kot Sabzal, Walhaar and Dhandi had turned barren over the last decade due to water theft by farms closer to canal headworks.

He said canals in Rahim Yar Khan and Sadiqabad were getting their full water allocation from headworks but water was scarce at outlets on the tail-end. Superintendent Engineer (Irrigation Department) Muhabbat Khan Baloch denied that any official of the department was abetting water theft. He, however, admitted that canal water was being stolen in Khanpur, Liaquatpur and Cholistan areas. He said that the department had reported several cases to the police. He denied that any farmer was getting more water than their allocation.

Rahim Yar Khan District Police Officer Sohail Zafar Chattha rejected the impression that the police were reluctant to take action against influential farmers.

He said the suspects had been arrested and produced in courts in all water theft cases registered with the police.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2012.