October 1, 2007	Monday	Ramazan 18, 1428

HYDERABAD, Sept 30: Expressing grave concern over non-availability of wheat seed, Sindh Chamber of Agriculture president Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah has said that if wheat seed is not provided to the growers, the country may experience a wheat crisis next year.

He was speaking at a meeting of the chamber held here on Sunday.

He said, the growers of Sindh needed 73,000 tons of wheat seed but it was not available with Sindh Seed Corporation.
He feared that the province will not be able to produce bumper wheat crop and the country was likely to face wheat crisis next year. He demanded of the government to ensure the supply of quality wheat seed to the growers.

The meeting expressed grave concern over the increase in the prices of DAP fertilizer and demanded that subsidy should be provided on this fertilizer and its availability should be ensured at subsidised rates.

The meeting strongly protested against the breach in Rohri canal and said that the breach had occurred due to inefficiency of the irrigation officials.

It demanded that the irresponsible irrigation officials should be awarded deterrent punishment and those people whose houses and crops were destroyed due to breach should be compensated and the affected growers should be exempted from the payment of land revenue and water charges.

The meeting pointed out that due to the attack of mealy bug on cotton, 50 per cent of the crop throughout the province had been destroyed and the growers had suffered losses to the tune of billions of rupees. It regretted that despite hue and cry by the growers, the government had paid no attention to the mealy bug attack.

The meeting hailed the government decision to increase the price of a productive unit from Rs400 to Rs1,200. The chamber has called for proposals from the growers for the establishment of cold storage projects for fruits and vegetables in Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar and Shahpur Jehanian.

Those who attended the meeting included Mir Murad Ali Talpur, Akhund Ghulam Mohammad Siddiqui, Anwar Bachani, Agha Nasrullah, Qazi Abdul Majeed and others.

Small transporters: Small transporters of Matli have sought protection against the alleged hooliganism of a big transporter of Badin, who according to them, had harassed them and filed a false case against two small transporters to monopolise the entire transport business.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Sunday, Hussain Bux Panhwar, Ahsan Ali Panhwar, Mushtaq Ali Panhwar and Ashfaq Ali Panhwar said that they owned one coaster each which were being plied between Badin and Hyderabad.

They said that Adam Khan Panhwar owned about a dozen vehicles which were plying on the same route. They said that he wanted to throw them out of transport business to enforce his monopoly.

Hussain Bux and Ahsan Ali said that a ten year old case of loan was registered against them to blackmail them and they were also being threatened with dire consequences by the transporter.

They appealed to the senior police officers and judiciary to provide them protection and justice against Adam Panhwar.
Land occupation: A villager of Miranpur, taluka Hala, Ramzan Ali Shaur, has accused a PPP leader of Bhanote of taking over the possession of his two acres of land forcibly, simply because he belonged to the Makhdoom group.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Saturday, he said that when the provincial president of PPP Syed Qaim Ali Shah had come to Bhanote along with Makhdoom Jamiluzzaman on May 9, 2007, he had announced to join PPP his friends after leaving the MQM.

He said that as the political rivalry existed between the Makhdooms of Hala and Syed of Bhanote, the latter were annoyed as he had not joined the PPP.

He said that due to this rivalry, his two acres of land has been occupied by the Syeds through their henchmen by force.
He appealed to the authorities to restore his land to him.

TEST: Mehran University of Engineering and Technology Jamshoro, here on Sunday, conducted test for the posts of assistant controller of examinations, internal check officer, assistant registrar, IT assistant accountant, data appliances and library assistant which were lying vacant. 269 candidates appeared in the test.

Speaking on the occasion, the head invigilator and dean faculty of technology, professor Dr Mohammad Ibrahim Panhwar and university registrar Dr Mohammad Aslam Uqaili said that all the appointments would be made on the basis of merit keeping in view the rules and regulations of higher education commission.