December 25, 2008	Thursday	Zilhaj 26, 1429

HYDERABAD, Dec 24: Speakers at a workshop have said there has been no change in the living standard of the people residing in the oil and gas rich areas as the oil and gas exploring firms has spent almost nothing on the welfare of locals and development of the area.

They said at the workshop organised by the Participatory Development Initiative in collaboration with Oxfam at the Tando Allahyar Press Club on Wednesday that the companies were legally bound to spend a certain amount of profit on the areas from they extracted the minerals.

PDI programme officer Ishaque Soomro said that Sindh produced more gas and oil than all federating units combined but it was being neglected by both the federal government and the oil and gas producing companies.

Sindh had not received even a single paisa from the production bonus, which was a mandatory requirement, Mr Soomro said and added that under the Petroleum Concession Agreement, this amount had to be spent on the development of the areas through district governments and elected representatives.

He said the companies were also polluting the environment as they were not adopting any precautionary measures during extraction of minerals. Media was duty bound to highlight these issues, he said.