15 January 2004	Thursday	22 Ziqa'ad 1424

LAHORE, Jan 14: The Punjab Assembly on Wednesday passed a bill which allowed the government to establish a university at Gujrat, the hometown of Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi.

All amendments suggested by the opposition were rejected. Under the act, the Government College; the Government Degree College for Women, Railway Road; the Fatima Jinnah College for Women and the Government College for Women, Marghzar Colony, shall be reconstituted as the University of Gujrat.

The university may open and administer new campuses and institutes as it shall have jurisdiction all over the province. There is no provision for a Senate in the act. The university will have the Syndicate, the Academic Council, the Board of Faculties, the Selection Board, the Advanced Studies and Research Board, the Finance and Planning Committee, the Affiliation Committee and the Discipline Committee.

The university shall include the faculties of Arts, Science, Social Sciences and Technology, Islamic and Oriental Learning, Management and Administrative Science, and Engineering.

Earlier, the house was told during question hour that 40 per cent water pumped out in Kasur district was brackish, according to a Wapda test report. However, potable sweet water was available at a depth of 700 feet.

It was denied that effluents being released by tanneries were polluting the sub-soil water throughout the district. Only a few factories working in Kasur town and adjacent villages were polluting the water but after the waste water plant was made operational there, the situation was improving.

The government had so far provided the potable water facility to 56 per cent urban and 26 per cent rural areas of Kasur district, while the tehsil municipal administration was also planning sewerage and potable water schemes for Mustafabad and Kasur town.

Pesticides issue: A poor attendance was witnessed on Wednesday when the house was opened to general discussion on agriculture with special reference to pesticides.

Hardly three dozen members were present in the house which has overwhelming representation from the farming community. The number of participants reduced further as some MPAs, who had also got themselves enrolled with the chair for taking part in the discussion, left the house.

This is not the end of the tale as a majority of those who joined the debate rarely discussed the subject of pesticides. Opening the discussion, MMA's Ehsanullah Waqas lamented lack of facilities for the agriculture sector, supply of fake pesticides and higher cost of fertilizers.

He suggested manufacturing of pesticides within the country to reduce their cost and the establishment of an institution for the provision of quality seed at reasonable rates.

Mukhtar Husain Shah demanded payment to sugarcane growers by millers through banks within two weeks of the supply of their produce. He also demanded farm loans against 3-5 per cent markup.

Muzammal Abbasi stressed the need for proper training of the field staff of agriculture department so that they could educate farmers on various requirements and demand of crops.

Parliamentary secretary for law Malik Ahmad Khan regretted that through the Punjab Agricultural Pest Ordinance was promulgated in 1959 and subsequent amendments up to 2002, powers and control were conferred to certain departments and officials but not a single provision was added to fix responsibility in case of bad performance.

He said what precautionary measures the agriculture department could take before the pest attack when its field staff had no training in this regard.

He said there should have been a briefing for the MPAs by the department on the subject before holding an open debate on it. According to him, 80 per cent of the pesticides were consumed by the Punjab but the business was regulated under federal laws.

Mujahid Ali Shah urged the need for making arrangements for the procurement of wheat before its harvesting. He deplored that the time for sunflower was getting lapsed but its seed was not available in the market.

Javed Gujjar demanded marketing for sunflower instead of the conventional crops of rice, cotton, sugarcane and wheat. He alleged that wrong forecasts were made at the behest of textile millers to keep cotton prices depressed.Khizar Hayat demanded setting up of a special task force under the chair of the chief minister to handle the spurious pesticides issue.

Dr Wasim Akhtar said mobile ginning units should be introduced like developed countries to save growers from the monopoly of ginners. He also suggested testing laboratories at district level.

Akhtar demanded a ban on pesticides application on fruits and vegetables because they caused cancer and other diseases. Dr Samia Amjad supported him saying this was also causing infertility among menfolk.

Agriculture marketing minister Rana Qasim Noon said talks were going on with the sugar mills association for prompt payment of dues to the growers. He said a meeting had also been called at Okara to solve the problems of potato growers. He said a team had been sent to Sindh to make arrangements for the proper supply of onion to keep its prices under control in the province.

He said market committees were being restructured while efforts were being made to reduce the role of middleman in the provision of farm products from the producer to the consumer.

Winding up the discussion, agriculture minister Arshad Lodhi said he was ready to take on pesticides and fertilizers mafias, if any. He said a task force had been set up with agriculture additional secretary as its head to control the pesticides problem.

He said he had also called on judges in various districts and sought earmarking of a special court for speedy disposal of cases regarding fake drugs.

He said efforts were also on to involve maximum companies in the import of pesticides as presently only 80 were active in the business.

He said he had talked to the federal commerce minister for the export of surplus potatoes. He also claimed that a delegation had successfully convinced the European Union in lifting the duty on brown Basmati as a formal announcement in this regard was expected within a couple of days.

Mujahid Ali Shah continued intervening during the winding up speech of the minister as the chair, being held by deputy speaker Sadar Shaukat Mazari, allowed him to express his reservations on validity of certain figures quoted by the minister.

Mr Lodhi hit him back by saying that he was following the instructions given to him over phone by some exiled leader. Mr Shah again stood up and swore that he was just talking of his mind and was not acting on the advice of someone. Later, the assembly session was prorogued for an indefinite period.