November 10, 2003	Monday	Ramazan 14, 1424

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SUKKUR, Nov 9: The local administration has recommended that the Sindh government should announce a relaxation in agriculture taxes for cotton growers of Ghotki as pest has destroyed more than 50 per cent of the crop in the district.

The EDO, revenue, Ghotki, Ali Akbar Hingoro, sent a report to a senior member of the Board of Revenue, Sindh, Manzoor Ahmad Bhutto, confirming the damages to the crop in the district and recommending relaxation in the taxes and or writing the same off.

It was learnt that after verification, the BoR member submitted the report to the Sindh government and a summary in this regard was pending before the chief minister.

Informed sources told this correspondent that the spray of pesticides on cotton crop had proved counter-effective as the same were substandard and adulterated.

The agriculture department has take no action against dealers and factories supplying substandard pesticides to growers.

The growers of the area have held agriculture officials responsible for the damage to their crop, saying that they are involved in supply of spurious pesticides to growers. They said that the officials did not guide them in protecting their crops against the pest attack.

A survey conducted by this correspondent revealed that last year the cotton crop was sown on 278,742 acres which yielded 3,623,646 maunds of cotton in Ghotki. The growers paid over Rs2.25 million to the government in the shape of water tax, Rs2.8 million as local tax and Rs5 million as agriculture tax that year.

When contacted by telephone, the EDO, revenue, said a recent survey had confirmed that the produce had decreased by more than 50 per cent this year.

UPLIFT WORKS: Monitoring teams have been formed to inspect all development works and their quality, and if any development work is found to be substandard, then the contractor concerned will be held responsible and he will have to pay for it.

The district Nazim, Sukkur, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, said this while briefing a media team in Sukkur on Saturday.

The briefing was arranged by the National Reconstruction Bureau, Islamabad, to review the development works in Sukkur and Khairpur districts till date.

He said that several inquiries had been ordered against the complaints of substandard development works and some were already in progress.