April 9, 2002	Tuesday	Muharram 25, 1423

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GUJRANWALA, April 8: The Kissan Bachao Tehrik (KBT) has given vent to its discontent for not providing pesticides, dung, seeds, diesel and agricultural equipment to farmers on subsidized rates.

The KBT also demanded the government that food grain markets and godowns should be constructed in remote areas to store the grain.

This was stated by KBT district president Chaudhry Javed Khan Manj while speaking at a meeting here on Monday.

He said that commission agents and mills owners purchased the wheat and paddy surreptitiously in case of bumper crops, causing heavy losses to farmers.

A board should be constituted comprising commission agents, farmers and mills owners to settle the agricultural crisis in the country, he said.

The meeting also voiced its disquiet over the acute shortage of canal water which was falling off day by day.

40 INJURED: At least 40 people sustained injuries, six of them serious, in collision between two wagons on the Sialkot Road here on Monday.

A speeding wagon was on its way to Sialkot from Gujranwala. Near Nandipur Hydel Power Project, it crashed into another wagon while overtaking a bus. As a result, almost all passengers of both vehicles sustained injuries. The injured were shifted to the local Civil Hospital where six of them were stated to be in serious condition.

Police have registered the case against the crews of both vehicles and are investigating.

FINES: The traffic police issued challan tickets to 460 vehicles, including buses and wagons, and fined Rs90,000 collectively during the last 24 hours.

DSP Intizar Jaffari said around 112 drivers were also arrested besides impounding their vehicles on the charge of violating traffic rules.