LAHORE: Prime Minister’s Kissan Package is the direct result of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto who showed solidarity with the farming community and made it clear his party would join their struggle.

PPP Punjab President Mian Manzoor Wattoo said this in a statement issued here on Tuesday.

“The prime minister was forced to announce the package for farmers after Mr Bilawal’s speech in Lahore. However, the package is too little too late as they have been destroyed by the anti-farmer policies of the PML-N government since it came to power,” he said.

The farmer community had been facing losses during the last consecutive four crops, he added.

Mr Wattoo demanded that the GST on agricultural machinery and produces should be withdrawn if the government really wanted to provide relief to the farmers.

He also demanded that the support price of cotton, rice, potatoes and sugarcane be fixed without any delay, ensuring suitable returns of these produces. Mere “cosmetic measures” would be deemed as rubbing salt on farmers’ wounds, he maintained.

He also rejected the electricity rates of Rs10.3 per unit for agricultural tube-wells, demanding flat rates instead, reminding that the previous PPP government had notified Rs8 per unit electricity rate for tube-wells.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2015

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