February 15, 2007	Thursday	Muharram 26, 1428

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

DADU, Feb 14: Activists of political parties, NGOs and citizens of Dadu and Johi talukas marched from the DPO Chowk to the local press club on Wednesday to press for their demand that the BHP Billiton, a gas exploration company operating fields in Johi, should spend bulk of its development funds in the area and provide jobs to locals.

They appealed to the company’s president and Gen Pervez Musharraf to take notice of their plight and warned they would launch province-wide protests against the company if their demands were not met.

Young Samaji Tanzeem leader Sawan Babar said while detailing the demands that the company should raise 12.5 per cent provincial share of gas development surcharge and it should be made binding ion the province to spend 70 per cent of the surcharge on development in the area.

He demanded that the company should announce its policy of land purchasing and lease and rehabilitate all the affected growers. All the agreements between the company and federal government should be made public and the district governments should be made overseers of the company’s affairs, he said.

Mr Babar said that the agreement between the government and the company should be published in local language and charged that the company was not spending on providing basic development needs like jobs, health, education and drinking water to local people.

He demanded that the government should make arrangements for carrying out audit of the accounts of NGOs working in partnership with the company.

Local leader of Sindh Taraqqi-Pasand Party Ghulam Qadir demanded that all the community development projects should be operated through local people and reputed NGOs.

He demanded free of charge gas connections to all the villages surrounding the main camp of BHP as was announced by former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali during his visit to the company.