July 19, 2002	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 8, 1423

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LARKANA, July 18: Recovery of the arrears of the agricultural taxes for the past years has been suspended in Warah, Kambar and Shahdadkot talukas which have been declared calamity-hit areas.

This was announced by the EDO, revenue, Larkana, here on Thursday for the information of the growers of the three talukas.

He said that the tax recovery for kharif and rabicrops of year 2001-2002 would continue and advised the landholders to deposit the taxes for this period.

On the other hand, Warah Nazim, Manzoor Ahmed Chandio, told this scribe that despite the suspension of the past year’s recovery, the revenue staff in Warah was busy collecting revenue, water and other taxes for the period.

He said that the revenue staff was also asking the police to arrests the defaulters.

General Secretary, Sindh Abadgar Board, Mohammed Ishaq Mugheri, said that land revenue recoveries were being made in the calamity-hit Shahdadkot also.

Naib Nazim, Shahdadkot taluka, Mohammed Haroon Soomro, said that the announcement made by the EDO was merely an eyewash for the revenue officials had already recovered dues of the past years on the pretext that they had not received the notification about the calamity-hit areas.

Hunger strikes: Four different groups observed token hunger strikes in Jinnahbagh here on Thursday to press the authorities concerned for the acceptance of their demands.

A group of residents and elected representatives from Shaikh Zayed Colony, led by the councillor Mohammad Ismail Bughio, observed a token hunger strike against Larkana district government for its failure to resist the occupation of a park plot from land mafia.

They demanded an end to the occupation of the plot by the land grabbers and announced to continue their struggle till the land grabbers were evicted from the plot.

A batch of around 20 lower grade employees of different government departments, led by Sabir Soomro, continued their hunger strike against the plan of sending them to the surplus pool.

The representatives of some labour organizations joined the protest to express solidarity with the government employees.

Some sacked PTCL employees also observed a token hunger strike alleging that the PTCL administration sacked them without any notice.

Around 10 villagers from Ali-ji-Wandh observed a token hunger strike against unjust distribution of Zakat funds.

They accused the chairman of Mirokhan Zakat committee of misusing the Zakat funds and demanded an inquiry into the matter.