HYDERABAD, Oct 24: A newly-formed Constituency Relation Group for NA-221 Hyderabad comprising professors, political and social activists, women and students has said that the main objective of the group was to highlight the problems of NA-221 Hyderabad (rural) and to get these problems resolved by involving the elected representatives of the people.

At a press conference at the press club here on Friday, the convenor of the group, Ms Sakina Leghari, professor Shahab Mughal, Saleem Jarwar and others said that the tail-end growers of the constituency were facing chronic problem of water theft of their share which was being sold to the influential landlords in connivance with the irrigation officials.

They said, fertilisers and pesticides were being openly sold in the black market and the growers were also being harassed to pay up agricultural loans and government dues although their crops had been destroyed.

They said that the students of the Sindh Agriculture University were also facing many problems in the absence of separate libraries for different departments, appointment of “sifarishi” teachers, deployment of Rangers at the hostel gate and girls hostel, inordinate increase in fees and absence of computer lab at BSc level.

The people of Tandojam, which was a big town, were facing drinking water crisis and due to massive unemployment, the youth was committing offences of moral turpitude, they said.

The leaders of CRG said that due to the abolition of son quota in the education department, the poor teachers who were being paid low salaries, were facing hardships. Many villages were without any girls school in NA-221 while due to political interference, the teachers seldom attend schools, they said.

They also complained of shortage of medicines in the government medical facilities in the area specially anti-snake and anti-rabies vaccines. They said that women of the area were also suffering due to the low wages of lady health workers and a sense of insecurity among them.

There was also a sense of insecurity among the members of the minorities and said that there was no school or hospital in Kolhi Goth on Jamshoro road, which was founded by none other than Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and added that due to the criminal activities of the hoodlums, the minorities of Kolhi Goth were passing sleepless nights. They demanded of the elected representatives of the people to resolve the above problems of the rural taluka of Hyderabad.