HYDERABAD, May 7: The Sindhi Hari Tehrik's central committee at its meeting held here on Thursday demanded that breaches in the Left Bank Outfall Drain should be plugged.

It said that the design of the drain should also be changed as breaches during last monsoon had wreaked havoc in Badin.

Speaking at the meeting, the president of the organization, Ali Nawaz Dahri, said that Kharif crops could not be cultivated on time due to acute shortage of water. He said that even drinking water was not available in Badin and Thatta districts and people of the coastal belt were suffering from stomach ailments due to consumption of brackish water.

He said that breaches that had occurred in the LBOD last year had not been plugged as yet. He said that monsoon rains would hit people of Badin badly if the breaches in the drain were not repaired and its design was not changed.

Mr Dahri said that Sindh had huge oil, gas and coal deposits but people of the province were not being given jobs and outsiders were being employed. The meeting demanded that local people should be given preference in jobs.

It condemned the expelling of peasants from agricultural lands and depriving them of their legal share of crops. It demanded a special quota for peasants in national and provincial assemblies to enable them to raise voice for their rights.

BUREAU: ASTHMA DAY: The Pakistan Chest Society, Hyderabad chapter, on Thursday organized a walk from the Hyderabad Gymkhana to the press club to mark the World Asthma Day.

Doctors, paramedical staff, residents and schoolchildren participated in the walk. Speakers, including Dr M. M. Haroon, Dr Noor Mohammad Memon, and Dr Javed Ahmad Shaikh, stressed the need for creating awareness among people against pollution, smoking and other health hazards which they said were the root cause for the spread of asthma.