LAHORE: The farmers belonging to Kissan Raj and Kissan Board Pakistan, who held a protest in front of the Punjab Assembly on Saturday, dispersed after an assurance by Agriculture Minister Farrukh Javed that their grievances were justified and would be looked into.

Some 100 farmers, who had gathered at Faisal Chowk at around 11am, grew in number and spirit by the time the provincial minister arrived there at 4:30pm. Both leaders of farmers and the minister made their speeches and farmers dispersed after the assurance was held out to them.

Addressing the framers, the minister said the government was going to announce the biggest support package for farmers.

“All genuine demands of farmer regarding rice, cotton, sugarcane and agri-machinery were being fulfilled. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will announce the historic package in next few days. The package will be an important step towards prosperous Pakistan and Punjab.

Despite opposition by the industry, the chief minister has fixed the price of sugarcane at Rs180 per maund. The Punjab government is introducing agri-road reforms throughout the province at a cost of Rs150 billion,” the minister said.

He said that he himself was a farmer and had raised voice at every level for resolving genuine problems of growers.

On the assurance by the agriculture minister, the farmers ended their protest and a sit-in and the The Mall was opened for traffic after about two hours of blockade.

Earlier, farmer leaders Arslan Khaqwani, Jam Ghazanfar Abbas and Abid Khan addressed the farmers and listed growers’ problem, which made were their lives difficult.

They demanded that the support price of cotton should be fixed at Rs4,000 per maund while Rs2,500 for basmati, Rs1,800 for maize and Rs250 for sugarcane be announced because the cost of production had gone through the roof.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2015

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