March, 20 2005	Sunday	09 Safar 1426

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SIALKOT, March 19: The recent spell of heavy rains has caused severe damage to the paddy yield stocked in the rice mills under tents and tarpaulins across Sialkot district. Both farmers and rice millers have to face heavy financial losses owing to the lack of proper storage facility. Requesting anonymity, a food department official said that about 70 per cent paddy yield stocked in the rice mills had already been affected as to the result of last week’s heavy rains in Sialkot district. The Food department has still not taken proper arrangements to save the paddy yield from further damage in Sialkot, Daska, Bhopalwala, Sambrial, Satrah, Mianwali Bangla, Uggoki, Mundeyki, Pasrur, Chawinda, Badiana and their adjoining areas. Sialkot district’s Anjuman Kashtkaran president Syed Iqbal Ahmad Shah, Punjab Farmers Rights Protection Commission chief Mirza Ehsan Baig and Citizens Rights Forum chairman Dr Muneer Butt and others told reporters that the export of the paddy yield had already been stopped for some unknown reasons.

They said this situation had also created the storage problem in rice mills. Owners had to stock the produce under tents and tarpaulins which was quite damaging in case of heavy rains.

Since rice mills in Sialkot district were located in low-lying areas, the rainwater accumulated some three to four feet high there, causing severe damage to the stocked paddy yield.

Requesting anonymity, some food department officials claimed that the paddy yield under tents and tarpaulins had become wet while its colour had also started changing from white to yellow.

Sialkot Rice Mills Owners Association president Muhammad Rasheed Warraich said that mill owners were also suffering great financial losses.

He said that rice mills with having no machine dryers would remain closed till the sunny weather for getting dried the wet paddy yield to avert further financial losses.

The affected paddy growers have urged the government to exempt them from the mark up on all agricultural loans.