June 10, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 05, 1429

HYDERABAD, June 9: The Indus Development Organisation (IDO), an NGO, has said that land-grabbers have burnt down trees on 257 acres of Khebrani forest in Matiari district to clear land for cultivation over past three months.

The executive director of the NGO Zain Daudpoto appealed in a statement issued on Monday to the provincial forest minister to save the forest.

The land-grabbers had made a practice of burning down trees before flood season and then getting the cleared land on lease, he said.

They were earning millions of rupees by growing gram and pulses on the forest land, he said.

He said that saplings had been planted on 75 per cent of the forest area under the vigilance of volunteers of the Forest Protection Committee of the NGO but feared that the land-grabbers were constantly looking for an opportunity to take back the cleared land.

He said that Khebrani police were also trying every bit to discourage the volunteers by implicating them in false cases. The 1,500 acres of forest land on which saplings had been planted, had become an eye sour for the land grabbers, he said.

Powerhouse: Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf had ordered an inquiry into the closure of two units of Lakhra powerhouse and formed an inquiry committee, which had sought report from the powerhouse management, said PPP MNA Nawab Abdul Ghani Talpur in a faxed statement on Monday.

He claimed that the minister formed the committee after his meeting with him in which he informed him about the closure of powerhouse units.

He said that the minister had promised to make a detailed tour of the province after budget session to take stock of situation arising out of loadshedding and also visit Lakhra powerhouse. He had also promised to make the closed units operational, he added.