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| December 1, 2005 | Thursday | Shawwal 28, 1426 |
Warning against poppy cultivation in Gadoon
SWABI, Nov 30: The area police have warned the people of Gadoon region against poppy cultivation and said that those found cultivating the crop would face penal action. Earlier police officials met jirga members who told them that the people expected the government to provide them alternative sources of livelihood and initiate development projects for their welfare.
They said that the Gadoon Estate was established in 1987when seven people lost their lives in clashes with law-enforcing agencies during their drive to destroy poppy crop.
The main objective of Gadoon Estate, they said, was to provide alternative source of livelihood to poppy cultivators but neither political parties nor successive governments did anything for this industrial estate.
They said the government had announced that the estate was being developed to discourage poppy cultivation in the region but later it changed its policy and now the estate was on the brink of collapse because most industrial units had closed down and only some textile mills were functioning.
The estate, they said, had been converted into a desert because the federal as well as the NWFP governments had made pledges to protect the estate but no one came forward to save it from collapse.
—Correspondent
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