HYDERABAD, Oct 13: The growers of Mirpur Bathoro held a demonstration outside the press club on Monday in protest against acute shortage of water in Ganj Bahar nullah.

The growers Abdul Razzaq Sahar and Abdul Jabbar Zounr said that the irrigation officials had created artificial shortage in Ganj Bahar nullah and no water had been released into this waterway for the last one month.

They said that sugarcane and paddy crops standing over tens of thousands of acres were drying up and appealed to the chief minister and minister and secretary for irrigation to rescue small growers who faced complete destruction if they did not get water.

HUNGER STRIKE: The employees of the Population Welfare Department held a demonstration and observed a token hunger strike outside the press club on Monday in protest against what they called ‘politically-motivated appointments’ in the department.

The vice-chairman of the Sindh chapter of All-Pakistan Clerks Association, Dost Ali Shaikh, and other office-bearers said that all the people of Sindh had voted for the PPP but the government was giving jobs only to the activists of one political party, they said.

They termed it a murder of merit and demanded that the children of the retired and expired employees of the department should be given preference in employment.

LUMHS: The additional controller of examinations of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences on Monday announced that Oct 25 had been fixed as the last date for submission of forms for the first professional MBBS (Part-II) annual examination 2009 at LUMHS, Chandika Medical College Larkana, Nawabshah Medical College for Girls and Ghulam Mohammad Mahar Medical College Sukkur.