MADEJI: On the call of Jamaat-e-Islami, hundreds of poor farmers of various nearby villages of Madeji took out a rally here on Monday, blocking Larkana-Sukkur highway by burning bushes at Jindo Dero Bridge against water scarcity
The protesters also staged a sit-in for three hours on the highway and demanded irrigation water supply to Warah Canal to sow rice. All kinds of traffic to and fro Larkana and Sukkur came to a standstill as long rows of vehicles were seen stuck up on both sides in this sizzling hot weather. Worst affected were the aged male and female passengers and the patients who had to reach Larkana for medical treatment.
Growers, including Ghazi Junaid Ahmed Mangrio, Hafiz Mansoor Bhutto, Mumtaz Bhutto, Abdul Sattar and Atif Bhutto chanted slogans “Why Karbala – Why Karbala” while holding paddy seedlings in their hands.
The protesters while talking to newsmen alleged that irrigation authorities had created handmade scarcity in the Warah Canal and it looked like a dry canal due to which their thousands of acres of agricultural lands had become barren. They said due water shortage, their paddy seedlings were burning for which they were facing millions of rupees losses. They said their sit-in would continue till water was released in the Warah Canal.
SHO Madeji Talib Memon persuaded the protesters but they refused to call off their protest. After three long hours, former Madeji town committee chairman Najaf Kamario reached the spot, held talks with the agitating peasants and made a commitment that water will be provided to them in two days time.
Kamario said that protesters’ issue was genuine because their paddy seedlings were burning, hence, he talked to the irrigation department engineers who assured that water shortage problem would be addressed within two days following which protesters called off their sit-in. He said that if the water shortage problem was not resolved within two days, then he would also protest along with the farmers.