TOBA TEK SINGH
Scores of farmers staged a sit-in on Wednesday outside Kamalia Sugar Mills as a protest over the non-payment of their outstanding dues against the supply of sugarcane.
They reached in a rally of tractor trolleys, cars, motorcycles and vans outside the mills from Pirmahal. Addressing the participants, Mehr Mumtaz Ahmad, Maj (r) Ahmad Nawaz, Rana Liaqat Ali, Rana Ghulam Qadir, Zahoorul Haq, Zafar Gadhi, Umer Bajwa, Nasir Gujjar, Rao Shafiq said that a sum of Rs2 billion was outstanding against the mills but its management was not paying despite its promise made in January protest.
They alleged that influential and men of ruling party were being paid from backdoor while the farmers were facing great financial crisis due to non-payment of their money while they could not take care of other crops due to non-use of fertilisers, pesticides and tubewell water. When this report was filed, the sit-in continued.
Earlier, six-hour talks failed between leaders of growers and two assistant commissioners of Kamalia and Pirmahal Shumaila Manzoor and Hafiz Muhammad Najeeb. Both the officials could not convince them to postpone the rally and sit-in on Tuesday evening.
BOY DROWN: A two-year-old boy drowned in village chak 385 JB Salhrian. Sadar police said deceased Nasir was playing in his house when he suddenly fell into water tub and drowned.