October 04, 2008	Saturday	Shawwal 04, 1429

HYDERABAD, Oct 3: The Sindh Hari Porhiyat Council at a meeting has hailed the government’s decision to increase wheat price and insure crops but said that these good measures were no substitute for land reforms.Punhal Sario presided over the meeting, which was attended by Comrade Ramzan Memon, Dost Mohammad Channa, Zahid Hussain and other members of the central committee of the council.

The meeting observed that land reforms would remain incomplete without the abolition of feudal system. It demanded that the ownership limit of a family should be restricted to 50 acres of irrigated land and 100 acres of barani land.

The meeting proposed that an autonomous land utilization commission under supervision of the judiciary should be appointed to stop commercialization of land and to ensure that the agricultural land was only used for agricultural purpose.

It said that a new judicial system should be evolved to resolve all land disputes and allotment of land should be made on the principle of ‘Haq Shufa’ ie without charging any fee.

It said that only eight acres should be allotted to a hari family or farm workers, all the allotments made to different government organisations should be cancelled and be allotted to the landless haris.

Similarly, auction of lands should be stopped and the land allotted to the haris in the previous land reforms should be given to them, it demanded. The meeting strongly opposed the concept of corporate farming and said that it was tantamount to creating new jagirdars and big zamindars.

Meanwhile, the PPP MNA from Jamshoro district, Nawab Abdul Ghani Talpur, has also welcomed the government’s decision to increase the support price of wheat and said that the decision would not only go a long way in making Pakistan self-sufficient in food but surplus wheat would also be made available for export.

He was talking to farmers on the occasion of Eidul Fitr here at his residence. He said that a proposal to fix electricity charges for tube wells was also under consideration of the government and added that tractors would soon be provided to the farmers at subsidized rates.

He said that Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani was taking special interest in the uplift of the agriculture sector. He said that watercourses were being lined to check wastage of water.