HYDERABAD, Jan 26: The Sindh Abadgar Board President Abdul Majeed Nizamani has urged the government to give agriculture scientists of Sindh the same facilities and perks enjoyed by their colleagues who work in federally administered departments.

Mr Nizamani said in his presidential address at a seminar organised by Agriculture Research Sindh in Tandojam on Thursday that despite paucity of funds and little encouragement by the government the scientists had succeeded in introducing three new varieties of wheat, SKD, JJ and Imdad which were far more productive than the existing ones.

He said that the new varieties, which he believed would survive the next 50 years, were in great demand among the growers of Punjab and other provinces.

Mr Nizamani told reporters after the seminar that the government’s wrong policies had sent the growth rate of major crops plunging to minus column. Sindh had 14 major canals still the tail-end growers did not get water, he complained.

He said that thousands of tonnes of wheat had been destroyed in heavy rains on September 8 due to sheer inefficiency of food department officials and added that corruption and lawlessness in the province had reached new heights.He said that Sindh was not getting its due share of water and a large quantity of what it did receive went waste. Growers of Sindh had to sustain huge losses after the government imported wheat, he said.

A leader of Sindh Abadgar Board Syed Nadeem Shah said that the bureaucrats imported wheat just to skim commission and demanded that the scientists should be rewarded and their children should be given employment.

Sindh Seed Corporation Managing Director Dr. Haji Khan Keerio said that the government should reward the scientist Karam Khan Kaleri for introducing the new varieties of wheat.

He said that even after a raise in agriculture research funds from seven to 20 per cent agricultural scientists could not even own a house after retirement. On the contrary scientists working at Pakistan Agriculture Research Council and Nuclear Institute of Agriculture enjoyed more facilities, he said.