HYDERABAD: Judicial inquiry sought into ‘plunder’ at Tandojam varsity
Bureau Report
HYDERABAD, March 4: The Sindh Abadgar Board has demanded a high-level judicial inquiry into what it calls plunder at the Sindh Agriculture University of Tandojam and urged the Sindh governor and chief minister to take steps to restore the sanctity of educational institutions.
A meeting of the board headed by Abdul Majeed Nizamani on Saturday called upon the government to enforce its writ and uphold the supremacy of law.
The meeting expressed sympathies with the bereaved family of the slain university student Majid Rajput and demanded that the government should pay compensation to the board chairman and other guests whose vehicles were set ablaze by miscreants while they were attending a seminar at the university on Feb 24.
The meeting expressed satisfaction over subsidy in DAP prices, good weather and a bumper crop produced in the province this year but showed its concern that the departments concerned were likely to slow down the purchase of new crop on the pretext of carryover stock and cause great losses to growers.
The growers demanded that the federal and provincial governments should not import any food item without taking them into confidence and conducting a proper survey.
The meeting demanded that bardana (gunny bags) should be made available at all the purchasing centres by March 10, and the growers’ representatives should be allowed to be present there.
The godowns’ storage capacity should be raised from 400,000 tons to one million tons and the present stock of wheat should be exported, the meting demanded seeking inquiry into the destruction of 30,000 tons of wheat in last years' heavy rains and millions of rupees of expenditure incurred on fumigation.
The meeting termed the increase in power tariff a death blow to agriculture and demanded that the government should instead cut it by 15 per cent. Wapda had been provided Rs200 billion subsidy from 2002 to 2006 still the authority had been unable to bring down line losses from 35 per cent, the meeting said and demanded an inquiry. Elsewhere in the world maximum line losses were in the range of only 15 per cent, it said.
The meeting demanded that the oil prices should be reduced by 43 per cent and argued that no country in the world except Pakistan had imposed GST on agricultural inputs. It therefore should be withdrawn, the meting said.
The meeting urged the president, prime minister, governor and chief minister to take drastic steps against criminals to control the deteriorating law and order situation.
DEMO: The Joint Action Committee made up of different political and social organisations demanded on Sunday that the government should immediately arrest the alleged murderers of Majid Rajput whose death followed the worst ever carnage at the campus and compensate the university for the losses.
The leaders including veteran leftist leader Jam Saqi, Mehboob Abro, Punhal Sario and Hussain Bux Thebo said while addressing a large number of people who staged a protest demonstration outside the press club against carnage that some elements were bent on destroying the educational institutions of the province.
Using the murder of Majid Rajput as a pretext the miscreants unleashed a reign of terror in the university burning scores of vehicles and destroying property worth tens of millions of rupees, they said.
They alleged that the people who were involved in the plunder were being protected by some influential groups and blamed an ethnic organisation for trying to stir up riots in Hyderabad.
They warned that if the government failed to arrest the miscreants the action committee would launch a protest movement.
