Rangers to be deployed to stop canal water theft

Sindh caretaker chief minister Fazal-ur-Rehman has decided to deploy personnel of the Pakistan Rangers at different irrigation canals, distributaries and channels to stop water theft so that water could be provided to the tail-end areas of the province.

He took decision on Thursday while presiding over a meeting of the provincial irrigation department at the CM House to review the water position at different barrages. The meeting was attended by caretaker irrigation minister Mushtaq Shah, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput and irrigation secretary Syed Jamal Shah.

Irrigation secretary Jamal Shah, while briefing the CM, said that the water position had considerably improved at the Guddu Barrage and it had been recorded at 81,328 cusecs.

The position at different barrage is as follows:

Guddu Barrage upstream is 81,328 cusecs and downstream is 63,948 cusecs; Sukkur Barrage upstream is 48,401 cusecs and downstream 15,831 cusecs, and Kotri Barrage upstream is 6,880 cusecs.

The CM was told that the allocation for the Guddu Barrage was 31,100 cusecs and Balochistan 6,700 cusecs, Sukkur Barrage 5,600 cusecs and Balochistan 2,200 cusecs and Kotri Barrage 32,500 cusecs.

Guddu Barrage withdrawal: Begari Sindh feeder withdrawal is 3,054 cusecs, desert Pat Feeder 7,700 cusecs, and Ghotki Feeder 6,626 cusecs.

Sukkur Barrage : Northwestern Canal 3,100, Rice Canal 4,040, Dadu Canal 2,360, Nara Canal 10,500, Khairpur Feeder East 1,415, Rohri Canal 10,000 cusecs, and Khairpur Feeder West 1,155 cusecs.

Kotri Barrage: Kalri Baghar 2,660 cusecs, Akram wah 640 cusecs, Pinyari 1,530 cusecs, and New Fuleli 2,125 cusecs. In this, the total withdrawal of water from canals of Sindh is 56,905 cusecs.

The caretaker CM said that Nara Canal had the capacity of 13,649 cusecs against which it withdrew 10,500 cusecs water. “This is not a bad situation but even then there is an acute shortage at the end of Nara Canal,” he said.

On this, the secretary said that there was water theft in different distributaries, and added that so far 50 FIRs had been registered by the police.

The caretaker CM decided to deploy Rangers’ personnel in aid of the police so that water theft could be stopped. “My objective is to provide water to all the tail-enders; therefore, I am going to deploy Rangers and the cases of theft would be registered directly against the landlord not against their kamdars (managers),” he said.

The CM directed the irrigation secretary to identify spots of canals and distributaries and branches from where water was being stolen and to hand over a list to the home secretary.

The home secretary would coordinate with the Rangers for their deployment at the identified spots. The chief minister also spoke with the Sindh Rangers director general for the deployment of paramilitary soldiers along the canals.

Reaction

In a press statement, a former MPA belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, Nusrat Bano Seher Abbasi hailed the decision of the caretaker CM to deploy personnel of the Sindh Rangers to prevent instances of water theft in the province.

She said that small growers always had to face injustice in the distribution of irrigation water.

She said that the caretaker CM in the present day had acknowledged the instances where influential landlords were involved in water theft in the province as he had also ordered lodging cases against them.

The former lawmaker said that the Pakistan Peoples Party had been ruling in the province for the last 10 years as the bureaucracy had been used by the rulers for their vested interests.

In several such instances, cases of water theft were not lodged against the influential landlords; rather, they were lodged against their Kamdars. She said that such cases lodged against 50 kamdars should instead be lodged against the influential landlords involved in the water theft in actual and they should also be arrested.

She said it was the first time that the CM had issued directives for the arrest of influential people involved in water theft as it was yet to be seen when these orders were implemented in actual.