TOBA TEK SINGH
Speakers at National Kissan Conference said that farmers were facing loss in agriculture due to the hike in prices of electricity, petroleum products, fertlisers, pesticides and other agri inputs.
The conference was held under the auspices of Lok Sanjh, an NGO, and addressed by Dehqan Assembly Pakistan chief Dr Shahid Zia, Kissan Board’s president Zafar Hussain, Qazi Altaf of Jhal Magsi (Balochistan), Dr Qadir Baloch of Sindh, Janisar Khalil of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa,Nasreen Awan, Attaullah Tahir, Amir Rashid and Subhan Khan.
They stated that the farmers had been forced to sell their produce at very cheap prices as a result they were facing loss in the farming sector. The speakers said that Toba district was being irrigated by Gogera and Jhang branches of canals but both were on tail ends while the subsoil water of this district was brackish so the government should devise a plan to resolve the water shortage problem.  They also demanded provision of subsidy on the electricity for tube wells and reduction of the prices of fertilisers, seeds, diesel and other agri inputs. They also demanded an increase in the prices of cotton, sugarcane and wheat according to ratio of expenditures of the cultivators.
‘BAD’ GOVERNANCE FLAYED: A former federal minister held the last government responsible for the present crises. At Kamalia, Khalid Ahmad Kharal after returning from his two-month visit to the US stated that due to the wrong policies of the last government, the PPP had lost popularity.