SWABI: Different bodies of tobacco growers warned here on Thursday that if the federal government failed to transfer benefits of tobacco crop and Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government under the 18th amendment they would launch protest demonstrations across tobacco cultivating districts.

In a meeting, the Kisan Board (KB) and Kashthkar Coordination Council (KCC) lauded the KP Assembly for unanimously adopting a resolution in which they called for transfer of authority of tobacco board to the provincial government. They alleged that the federal government was playing tricks with the KP government and tobacco growers.

Control of various departments has been given to the provincial government under the 18th amendment, but PTB which has its main office in Hayatabad, Peshawar, still works under the federal government.

They said that in last financial year the federal government received Rs115 billion as revenue through different taxes on tobacco. They said that with transfer of PTB and tobacco crop benefits to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the province would get a big financial boost.

“We demand that 20 per cent of the revenue of collected taxes should be spent in tobacco growing districts on the welfare and education of the people,” said Mohammad Ali Dagiwal.

KCC general secretary Liaquat Yousafzai said that both Virginia and whita patta tobacco was widely grown in a few districts of KP. He said that PTB should have been transferred much earlier to the KP government.

KB president Khalid Khan said that tobacco cess development collected by the KP government had always been given to parliamentarians of tobacco growing districts, but they did not use a single penny on the welfare of growers.

TOURNMENT: A total of 36 teams are participating in the night cricket tournament in Tarbela Dam Right Bank Colony, which entertains the employees of Tarbela Dam and Ghazi Barotha hydropower project.

Organisers said that no team from outside of the residential areas of Tarbela Dam was allowed to participate in the tournament and only youngsters living in Tarbela Dam colonies could be part of the contesting teams.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2016