NAWABSHAH, April 4: The growers whose lands lie at the tail-end of Malwah branch demanded on Wednesday that the Sindh chief minister and minister for irrigation should waive agricultural tax and abiyana as they had been irrigating their lands through their own tube-wells for years.

Mohammed Luqman Chandio, Mohammed Hashim Chandio and Mohammed Suleman Chandio told journalists at the press club that due to acute shortage of irrigation water in the branch they had been watering their lands through tube-wells for many years hence they should not be made liable to paying abiyana and other water related taxes.

But the department had not accepted their contention and had been subjecting them to pay tax since long, which they said, was a stark injustice.

They demanded that the Sindh chief minister and irrigation minister should direct the authorities concerned to issue them rebate certificates otherwise, they warned, they would go on hunger strike.