June 26, 2002	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 14, 1423

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GILGIT, June 25: The Northern Areas Chief Secretary Maj (retd) Fazal Durrani has said the purpose of deploying Qasim Rangers at the Sost Customs checkpoint was to curb smuggling activities that were hurting the economy.

He said the industry had been badly affected by this menace in the past, and urged the traders to pursue legal channels of business and discourage elements who were bent upon damaging the interests of the genuine traders.

He said the government had allowed all the businessmen to continue their business along the Sost border provided they did so legally.

To a query, Mr Durrani said that only surplus workers had been sacked from the Northern Areas Transport Corporation because they were eating away at the resources of the corporation without contributing substantially to the entity.

He further added that in order to alleviate poverty from the region, the government was taking concrete steps to enhance the agricultural yield per acre and in this respect, the authorities concerned had prepared a PC-1.

He informed the farmers that over 25 bulldozers had been acquired from a donor country to make cultivable hundreds of acres of rugged and non-smooth lands.

He also asked the farmers to sow best, healthy and disease-protected seeds to increase their production and urged the “progressive farmers” to do experiments to boost their produce by exploiting the available resources.