The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture on Sunday blamed inefficiency of Irrigation Department officials for persistent water shortage in the province even after enormous increase in water level in the River Indus. The chamber's president Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah said at the chamber's weekly meeting that although the river was flowing to its full capacity the water was not being released into the channels and they were running dry. The meeting blamed the officials' inefficiency for nagging water shortage problem and said the growers were crying hoarse for water but they received nothing. The meeting demanded that the Sindh government award exemplary punishment to inefficient and corrupt officials and ensure that water was released into all the channels. The government's indifference towards agriculture sector had rendered the sector like an old widow about whom nobody cares, the meeting observed. The meeting said that said that lawlessness and unemployment had attained alarming proportions in rural areas in the wake of destruction of agriculture sector. The growers complained that dealers had disappeared fertilisers from the open market and were selling the same in black-market to fleece poor growers. The meeting demanded that the government ensure availability of fertilisers in the open market and reiterated that the sugar mills should be directed to clear cane growers' outstanding dues without further delay. The meeting said that Rohri Canal and Kotri Barrage should be desilted and their embankments should be reinforced to prevent a possibility of breach. The cooperative banks should be reactivated and the growers should be extended loans through cooperative societies. Mir Murad Ali Talpur, Dr Shahnawaz Shah, Mir Imdad Ali Talpur, Mohammad Khan Sarejo, Nawab Ghulam Qadir Laghari and a number of growers attended the meeting. engineer relieved: The Sindh irrigation secretary