May 06, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 18, 1428

HYDERABAD, May 5: The Sindh Abadgar Board has criticised the decision of the ministry of water and power to shut tube-wells in farms during day time at 48 hours’ notice, saying that the move is ridiculous and will harm national economy.

A board meeting, presided over by Abdul Majeed Nizamani, reminded the government that 70 per cent of the country's exports were dependent on agricultural products and the agriculture sector paid Rs30 billion to the government in the shape of electricity bills.

It said that out of 957,920 tube-wells in the country, 95,000 tube-wells were installed in Sindh out of which 35,000 were running on electricity.

It pointed out that cotton crop had been sown on 1.6 million acres and sugarcane on 800,000 acres of land in October which was in addition to rice, banana, mango and other fruits and vegetable.

It called upon the president and prime minister and the federal minister for water and power to rescind the decision to save the livelihood of 100 million people associated with agriculture.

It demanded an inquiry against Wapda for failing to increase power generation capacity despite receiving subsidy of Rs200 billion between 2003 and 2006.

The meeting wondered why KESC's bills, amounting to Rs20 billion, were not being recovered and why government departments had failed to pay power bills amounting to billions of rupees.

It said that over 50 per cent of electricity required for tube-wells could be saved if air-conditioners of important government functionaries were switched off just for three hours a day.

It warned of acute shortage of raw material for textile, cotton ginning, sugar and other agricultural-based industries in case the tube-wells were closed, adding that tens of thousands of workers affiliated with the agriculture sector, including the growers, would be rendered jobless.

WATER SHORTAGE: The meeting expressed surprise over the shortage of irrigation water throughout Sindh, specially at the tail-end of Sukkur barrage area despite availability of a large quantity of water during last and current year. It demanded that the water rotation programme should be ended forthwith and the availability of water should be ensured at the tail-end of each channel.

VEHICLE SEIZURE: Exp-ressing concern over the seizure of vans, pick-ups, trucks and coasters by police for transporting people to Naukot for President Musharraf’s public meeting, the SAB observed that due to the action, essential consumer goods could not be transported to markets and the agriculturists had to suffer suffered losses.

The meeting urged the government to provide facilities to the farming community, made available in other countries, and to reduce the trade deficit which was expected to rise to 15 billion dollars next year.

It claimed that agriculture was the only sector which could produce results within one year and added that the export of wheat to the tune of Rs14.4 billion this year was an ample proof of this fact.

It said that if sunflower was cultivated on 1.5 million acres of land, the import bill on edible oil could also be reduced by Rs18 billion provided incentive were given to the growers in this regard.

It claimed that if palm oil was cultivated on six million acres of the coastal belt of Balochistan and Sindh, in collaboration with Malaysia, the government could earn billions of rupees on the export of palm oil.

The meeting observed that it has already been proved that palm oil production in the coastal belt could yield better results than Malaysia.