BADIN: The Thar Coal road (originally known as Badin-Mithi road) sit-in continued for the fourth day on Monday, as the government efforts to disperse the protesters and clear the track which connects to Karachi have so far failed.

Proponents, from many villages of Mirpurkhas, of cutting the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) ridge on RD 211 in Badin turned to streets on Friday afternoon after several of their villages were inundated with floodwaters. They reached the Khoski Bypass of the road to protest.

They said that the provincial government did not fill the “man-made” crack at the Mirpurkhas Main Drain (MMD) Pran Sem Nullah despite Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah’s claim of completing it in three days.

Around 22 days have passed since the promise and villagers fear floodwaters would enter their lands. They demanded of the government to revive natural waterways and for this purpose a cut be made on RD 211 of LBOD dyke. They were of the view that they would make the cut by themselves if the provincial administration was not willing to do it.

Read more: Sindh’s desperate farmers turn to old-school fence to face flood

Reacting to this, residents of many villages of Tharparkar and Badin strongly opposed the decision and reached to the Navy Chak Mor to block them. They were of the view that the cut would affect their already flooded villages and areas.

Sources told Aaj News that people from Tando Muhammad Khan would join the pro-cut group today (Monday) to express solidarity with them.

Sharjeel Memon, Sindh information minister, on Saturday clarified that any cut would not be made at the whim of somebody and experts from the Irrigation Department would be consulted for it.

Talks under way, but Irrigation Department to ‘resolve issue’

Agha Shahnawaz Khan, the Badin deputy commissioner, and the SSP said on Sunday that talks were under way to disperse the protesters. However, they added that the Irrigation Department would resolve the issue.

“The deputy commissioner and the SSP are right,” Zarif Iqbal Khero, the chief engineer at Irrigation Department, said after the government failed to convince the protesters.

The department had written a letter to the administration on August 24 after the heavy rains. “Inform the people living on the sides of Dhoro Puran that embankments can contain water at a certain volume afterwards there will be a threat of breaches. But we are doing the maintenance and our work,” Khero said while sharing the details of the letter.

The chief engineer described a “spinal drain” as the “critical reach”, made by the Water and Power Development Authority under LBOD, which cut Dhoro Puran from three areas. The department claimed to maintain it in view of such a situation.

“Many elements are involved in the gathering of such people,” he said, adding that any breach in water flow would be because of technical reasons. Khero said his department has delivered the technical reasons to the local representatives concerned.

“Again we have no technical reason to propose the cut. We cannot defend it legally,” he said, “they [protesters] are saying that the ongoing system must be broken.”

It was very difficult to fill the crack at this time, he said.