ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: Growers and ginners must be supported to achieve this year’s cotton production target, says President Asif Ali Zardari.

Chairing a meeting on the crisis in ginning sector at the presidency, Mr Zardari ordered the officials concerned to look into ginners’ complaints and take effective measures to remove them.

The president was briefed by Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf on the efforts taken by the agriculture and water and power ministries to ensure the smooth functioning of the ginning factories.

He said there were about 800 ginning factories in the country that were earlier facing about 12-hour-long loadshedding daily, resulting in temporary closures and strikes by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA).

Mr Ashraf said he had issued orders on Friday to provide these factories an uninterrupted power supply as electricity shortfall had now declined to 1,800 megawatts from 6,100MW, resolving most of their problems.

The water minister said there was a possibility that the gap in power supply might be further reduced after the increase in water releases from Mangla and Tarbela dams.

The meeting was also attended by Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Salman Farooqi, secretaries of ministries concerned and representatives of the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council.