SWABI, Feb 13: NWFP Food, Excise and Taxation Minister Fazal Rabani on Friday asked the Pakistan Tobacco Company to distribute over four million saplings free of cost among tobacco growers.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the PTC's plantation campaign, he said the minor charges for the saplings should be withdrawn by the company. The minister said that during the last few years the company had distributed saplings among the growers free of cost and the tradition should be kept alive.

Earlier, the minister was informed that during the plantation campaign the company would charge 30 paisa and 15 paisa for different plants. Inthe past, the people who got plants free of cost had taken less interest in the plantation, he was told.

Mr Rabani said the company would give gold and silver medals and shields to the students who got top positions in the matriculation examination inthe tobacco growing districts.

He welcomed the establishment of learning resource centres by the company for computer education. He urged the tobacco companies to implement agreements with the growers and said the benefits of the crop should be given to the peasants instead of the businessmen.

He opposed the companies' policy under which the growers were bound to purchase pesticides and fertilizers from the companies with which they had signed agreements.

He said the purchase of pesticides and fertilizers should not be linked with the agreements. He said the efforts for getting provincial rights from the federal government would continue and people would get various benefits soon.

PTC Environment Manager Samar Khan told the minister that the companyhad planted and distributed over 29.9 million trees since 1981. "We have our own nurseries, whereby we plant on an average 10,000 trees per day and four million in a year," he said.