MUZAFFARGARH, April 12: Villagers of Muradabad on Friday night caught a gang of thieves, who used to take away SCARP machinery, and handed them over to police.

Local farmers had bought SCARP tubewells after privatisation. The Muzaffargarh district has been witnessing the incidence of theft of SCARP tubewells for the last many months.

Dr Ghulam Ahmad Sial, a local PPP leader, said some villagers caught five people stealing machinery at tubewell Nos RP-405 and RP-406. The villagers detained them and made an announcement at the mosque to the effect.

Sial said the accused identified as Riaz Gujjar, Ibrahim Gujjar, Abdul Rahman and Javed of Gujranwala told them that they were working for the SCARP department. According to Sial, the accused had been stealing machinery and selling it in Gujranwala and Faisalabad districts for the last five years.

Dr Sial said the gangsters had been taking away tubewells from Trimmu Head to Alipur, causing a loss worth billions of rupees. He said the SCARP had not lodged any FIR for the last five years which indicated that the department was also allegedly involved in theft. DSP Mehr Javed said: “The SCARP officials are active for the release of the gangsters.”

He alleged that SDO (SCARP) Humayun Shah had offered him bribe for releasing the thieves.

The DSP said: “A team is investigating the matter, and the probe will complete within days.”

He said the gang had ‘experts’ who dislodged a tubewell and other machinery within 10 minutes.

The SCARP department had awarded ownership to the local community at Rs15,000 per tubewell, which was a big loss to the government. On the other hand, 1,200 tubewell operators and 1,600 other workers are on a sinecure job.

A SCARP official said when the programme was launched in 1967 with the help of the Asian Development Bank for removing the salinity system, the department gave more benefits to farmers.

When the SCARP tubewells were auctioned, Wapda dislodged electricity connections and took away transformers and meters, which was in violation of the agreement. Now farmers are facing water shortage, and the irrigation department did not provide water for wheat in February and March.

Meanwhile, MNA Jamshed Dasti said he would raise these issues in the National Assembly. “I have a list of corrupt officials who looted money and caused damage to the agriculture sector here.”

Irrigation Department Chief Engineer Iftikhar Bhutta was not attending phone despite repeated attempts.