HYDERABAD, April 13: The Sindh Abadgar Board has condemned the establishment of roadside checkposts by contractors of market committees and termed collection of market committee fee at checkposts illegal.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, SAB president Abdul Majeed Nizamani said that illegal market committee fee was being charged on wheat, rice, vegetables, wood, milk, livestock and even poultry.

He said that Sindh Agriculture Minister Arif Jatoi had issued clear instructions to the Director-General, Agriculture Extension, Malik Mohammad Akram, to immediately remove the illegal checkposts, cancel licenses of those contractors who were violating the Agriculture Produce Market Act 1939 and rules framed under it and blacklist the contractors.

Mr Nizamani, however, regretted that the violation was continuing and no action was being taken against the contractors violating the law. He said that the situation had compelled Sindh, Balochistan Rice Millers and Traders Association chief Gada Hussain Mahesar to announce that farmers and traders would refuse to pay market committee fee and take to the streets if the malpractice was not stopped.

The SAB leader said it was a irony that different experiments were being made in Sindh. Elaborating, he said, the movement of wheat had been banned in a district, water charges were forcibly being recovered from farmers of the calamity-affected areas, drainage surcharge had been levied on cultivation of sugarcane and seed corporation had been dissolved.

Recalling other problems being faced by growers of Sindh, he said that spurious and substandard fertilizer and pesticides were being openly sold, 1991 water accord was being violated, mismanagement in water distribution in the province had become order of the day and poisonous water was being released into the Indus River.

"What crime has Sindh committed to deserve such a callous treatment", the SAB president asked and called upon the federal and provincial governments to stop excesses against the province.

LOAN: The Zarai Taraqiati Bank will provide Rs650 million loan to growers under different credit schemes. This was stated by the regional manager of Zarai Taraqiati Bank, Hyderabad, Ajmal Hussain Qureshi, while talking to journalists here on Tuesday.