KARACHI - Sindh Caretaker Chief Minister Fazul-ur-Rehman has decided to deploy the Pakistan Rangers at different canals, distributaries and channels to stop water theft so that water could be provided at the tail-end.
He took this decision while presiding over a meeting of the Irrigation Department to review water position at different barrages here at the CM House on Thursday.
The meeting was also attended by Caretaker Irrigation Minister Mushtaq Shah, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput and Secretary Irrigation Syed Jamal Shah.
Briefing the chief minister, Irrigation Secretary Jamal Shah said that water position has considerably improved at Guddu Barrage and it has been recorded at 81328 cusecs.
The position at different barrages Guddu Barrage upstream is 81328 cusecs and downstream is 63948, Sukkur Barrage upstream 48401 and downstream 15831 Kotri Barrage upstream 6880 cusecs.
The chief minister said that the allocation for Guddu Barrage 31100 and Balochistan 6700, Sukkur Barrage 5600 and Balochistan 2200 and Kotri Barrage 32500.
Guddu Barrage withdrawal: Begari Sindh feeder withdrawal is 3054, desert pat Feeder 7700, Ghotki Feeder 6626.
Sukkur Barrage: North western Canal 3100, Rice Canal 4040, Dadu Canal 2360, Nara Canal 10500, Khairpur Feeder East 1415, Rohri Canal 10000, Khairpur Feeder West 1155.
Kotri Barrage: Kalri Baghar 2660, Akram Wah 640, Pinyari 1530, New Fuleli 2125 total 6955. In this the total withdrawal of canals of Sindh is 56905 cusecs.
The chief minister said that Nara Canal has the capacity of 13649 cusecs against which it withdraws 10500 cusecs. “This is not bad situation but even then there is acute shortage at the end of Nara Canal,” the chief minister said.
On this the secretary said that there was water theft on different distributaries and added that so far 50 FIRs have been registered.
Fazul-ur-Rehman decided to deploy the Rangers in aid to 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 the Rangers and the cases of theft would be registered directly against the landlord not against their managers,” he said.
He directed the irrigation secretary to identify the spots of canals and distributaries and branches from where water is stolen and hand over the list to the home secretary.
The home secretary would coordinate with the Rangers for their deployment. The chief minister also spoke with DG Rangers for deployment of the Rangers along the canals.
