BAHAWALNAGAR: Scores of farmers belonging to surrounding villages of Lower Beerwah canal on Thursday registered their protest against ofhcials of the irrigation department and accused them of damaging the canal bed and not repairing it timely which prevented water from flowing into their crops.

The protesters said the entire bed of the Lower Beerwah canal had been damaged because of the negligence of the irrigation officials, who failed to timely repair it. Owing to this, the water level in the canal remained below the water courses,they said.

The protesters said they filed several complaints to the authorities, personally met with the irrigation high-ups and also registered their protest but to no avail. They said they were left with the option to irrigate their land by using the costly method of tubewells.

However, because of skyrocketing prices of fuel they could not even think about it now.

They said if the authorities kept mum over the matter, their lands would turn barren and they would f ace famine.

They have appealed to the prime minister to take immediate notice of the matter and threatened to commit self-immolation infront of the PM House in case of no action.

GANG-RAPE CASE: Mandi Sadiq Ganj police have booked two men for raping an underage labourer along with a Panchayat member on the charge of preventing the victim`s father from approaching the police after receiving bribe from the suspects.

According to the first information report, a boy (9) of Mohalla Qurashian was learning plumbing at the shop of plumber `T`. It said on May 31, the child`s father filed a written complaint with Mandi Sadiq Ganj police against the plumber and his friend for gang-raping his son at the shop.

In the meanwhile, nota-bles intervened and the victim`s father reconciled with the alleged rapists by issuing an affidavit in their favour.

The FIR said on June 14, when the victim`s father came to know that Babar Naseem (a Panchayat member) had taken a bribe of Rs210,000 from the suspects for reconciliation, he again approached the police for taking action against the trio.

The police have registered a case against three people, including the Panchayat member.