TOBA TEK SINGH, Sept 10: Pakistan Kissan Committee President Fateh Muhammad has condemned the provincial government for forcing thousands of tenants in the province to vacate the farmland leased to them under ‘Zayada Ugao’ scheme.

In a press statement, he said the farmers had been toiling for years to make the land leased out to them cultivatable and now when it had become productive they were being forced to vacate it without any cogent reason. The scheme was launched in 1962.

He said hundreds of farmers in Toba district were being affected by the sudden policy shift, blaming bureaucracy for scheming to deprive farmers of their livelihood.

He said the coercive action was being taken at a time when the farmers had sown various crops like sugarcane, rice, fodder and cotton on the lands.

He demanded Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif should take serious notice of the matter to provide relief to the affected farmers.—Correspondent