Hundreds of farmers, growers and members of the civil society gathered in the Talhar town of Sindh on Thursday to express solidarity with protesting farmers who are holding a long march from Badin to Hyderabad on foot against the water crisis that the Badin district has been facing for the past several months.
Shopkeepers observed the half-day shutdown in Tando Bago and Talhar towns and joined the marchers.
The march was organised by the leaders of Save Badin Action Committee from Badin town on Wednesday to launch the decisive movement against the officials of Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (Sida) and irrigation departments for their alleged failure to provide the due share of water in the irrigation canals and outlets in the district. Mir Noor Ahmed Talpur, Azizullah Dero, Khalil Ahmed Bhurgari, Syed Khuda Dino Shah, Ameer Azad Panhwar, Mohammad Hanif Nizamani, Abdul Ghafoor Chandio and other leaders of Save Badin
This dire situation has created trouble for the farming community forcing them to come on the roads having found no relief from the officials.
The leaders said that they would offer stiff resistance to any move by the Sindh government to ban rice cultivation in Badin, adding that the persistent water shortage had already broken the back of the farmers of Badin and other districts of lower Sindh.
They deplored that the high-ups of the Sindh government wanted to snatch the morsels from their mouths by banning the cultivation of the chief crop of the lower Sindh.