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Irrigation men held for accepting bribe from farmer

KARACHI: The joint efforts of the Irrigation Department and the Army in desilting campaign started bearing fruit as water started reaching the tail-end farmers.

But the opportunities have also become active to make hay.

This was stated in an Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), Corps Headquarters Karachi, press release on Tuesday.

It said that two officials, working in the office of Director Nara Canal Area Water Board of Mirpurkhas, were apprehended red-handed while receiving first instalment of Rs. 150,000 as bribe for releasing water for a farmer.

Giving details, the ISPR press release said Choudhry M. Ashraf owns 300 acres of land in the area between Kunri and Umerkot. This area is irrigated through 17-mile Thar Noor Wah Channel, which is fed from Dharo Naro Canal.

This channel has 84 water courses but due to silting and theft of water by influential landlords water was available only to 35 water courses.

The farms and fields of the tail-end were dried up. It was after three years that due to on-going desilting operation water started reaching the tail-end but water supply of Choudhry Mohammad Ashraf was stopped. He approached the office of Director Nara where Shujauddin draftsman and account clerk Abdus Sami demanded Rs. 150,000 for getting his problem solved.

Having learnt of this plot, head of District Monitoring Team of the Army, Lt. Col. Shahid Ghani, along with SDM and CIA Inspector Ashraf Gujjar, raided the office and caught the individuals red-handed with an amount of Rs. 30,000 in their pockets, which was allegedly received as first instalment of the 'promised' money a short while before the raid. APP