LAHORE: Farmers are holding a “tractor march” in the provincial capital on Tuesday (today) to press the Parvez Elahi government for acceptance of their demands related to regulating the Urea fertiliser market, issuance of DAP subsidy and higher support prices for wheat and sugarcane.

Kissan Ittehad president Mian Umair Masood will lead the march against failure of the Punjab government in meeting their demands despite promises.

Farmers claim that Parliamentary Affairs Minister Raja Basharat had assured the representatives of the Ittehad recently that the government would take strict action against hoarders of Urea fertiliser, which was being sold at Rs3,200 per 50kg bag against the official rate of Rs2,250 per bag.

The provincial government had also not begun releasing the subsidy on DAP so far, nor it fixed wheat support price on a par with the Sindh government, which fixed it at Rs4,000 per 40kg.

Likewise, they had demanded Rs370 per maund support price of sugarcane, but the government had yet to take any step in this regard, while sugar millers have allegedly been given a free hand to purchase cane from the growers through simple paper slips instead of proper cane purchase receipt (CPR), as required under the law, they said.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2022