HYDERABAD, Feb 2: The Sindh Abadgar Board at its meeting held here on Saturday has congratulated the caretaker prime minister for calling a report within 10 days for using 185 billion tons of Thar coal for producing 20,000 megawatt of electricity but expressed surprise that when decisions for projects which were to be completed in 2019 could be taken, why decisions could not be taken to rescue the agriculture sector of Sindh which had suffered losses to the tune of Rs36 billion in rice, cotton and wheat crops.

It also expressed surprise that the government had failed to check the excesses of PSMA against 6.5 million families of farmers, haris and farm workers who paid Rs125 billion of taxes to the government.

The meeting which was presided over by board’s chairman Abdul Majeed Nizamani discussed the issues of sugarcane price, water shortage, agricultural inputs and lawlessness.

It demanded of the Sindh chief minister to restore the credibility of the government by implementing its decisions taken in the meeting of stakeholders at chief minister’s house on Jan 21, in which the price of cane was fixed at Rs63 per 40 kg.

It reminded the chief minister that the meeting was attended by the Sindh agriculture minister, the chief secretary and the agriculture secretary and its decisions were announced on the electronic media by the Sindh chief minister himself.

It said that Mr Aslam Farooq, the chairman PSMA, Sindh zone, had endorsed the decisions. It, however, regretted that the Sindh government had failed to implement the decisions.

It demanded that criminal cases should be registered against the sugar mill owners for refusing to implement the orders of the government. It also severely criticised the release of poisonous water from upstream into Sukkur barrage.

SCA: The president of Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah, has expressed grave concern over the increase in the prices of fertilisers and demanded of the government to take notice of this issue and ensure the availability of fertilisers in the open market at fixed rates.

He was speaking at a meeting of the chamber held here on Saturday.

He welcomed the re-appointment of Mr Nazar Mohammad Baloch as the cane commissioner of Sindh and said that being an experienced officer, he will make all-out efforts to protect the rights of the sugarcane growers.