HYDERABAD, May 1: The Sindh Abadgar Board has expressed concern over the unending shortage of water in the province and demanded implementation of the 1991 water accord in letter and in spirit.

At a meeting held here on Saturday, the board's working committee observed that under the water agreement, Sindh had to be supplied with 51,100 cusecs of water during first 10 days of May but it was receiving 18,000 cusecs of water.

The meeting said that no official clarification had been issued about the total availability of water and the formula under which it was being distributed.

It said that breaches in canals and mismanagement and corruption in water distribution had added to miseries of growers.

The board demanded that a daily bulletin should be issued through print and electronic media about the availability of water in different dams and barrages as well as canals and water distribution among the provinces.

It further demanded that water gauges of small and big channels should be recorded daily at the tail-end and corruption in the department should be stopped forthwith to control breaches, water theft and tampering of watercourses.

It urged the government to line vulnerable points of main canals of the province, replace wornout gates of regulators and release Rs25 billion immediately for lining of watercourses.

The meeting called for a high-level inquiry into the alleged malpractice in the SCARP and provision of 10 laser levellers in each taluka to prepare lands.

It criticized the ban on movement of wheat, claiming that the ban was illegal and in violation of international norms and practices. It feared that this would destroy the agricultural economy of the country, give rise to corruption and black-marketing and create a wheat crisis in the country.

The board demanded that the ban on the wheat movement should be lifted forthwith and a high-level committee, which should include representatives of growers' associations, be appointed to evolve a permanent strategy for achieving self-sufficiency in wheat.

About the increase in oil price, the meeting regretted that the government had allowed the PSO and multinational companies to increase prices of oil by 150 per cent in 5 years. It reminded the government that in 1999, the price of diesel was Rs10 per litre which had now jumped to Rs25 per litre.

Terming the inordinate increase in the price of diesel detrimental to national economy, the board demanded subsidy on diesel oil used for agricultural purposes to save the agricultural economy from destruction.

The meeting was presided over by Abdul Majeed Nizamani.