HYDERABAD, May 19: Nazims of various rural union councils of the district have threatened to launch a protest movement if the sugar cess fund and the octroi tax are not released to union councils by May 23.

They were speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Wednesday. The Nazims regretted that they had been protesting for one year against the withholding of the sugar cess fund and the octroi tax by the government but no action had been taken in the matter.

They said that the Sindh government had yet to pay Rs85 million of last years' sugar cess fund. The government had also withheld sugar cess fund of the current year. They observed that the government could not withhold the sugar cess fund as only sugarcane growers and mills contributed towards the fund which was to be used exclusively for construction and repairs of roads for transportation of sugarcane to mills.

They announced that they would start their protest movement from May 24 by boycotting the district council session and staging sit-ins outside the press club and offices of the district Nazim and the DCO. They said that they would also hold demonstrations and stage sit-ins in Karachi if the funds were not released.

They said that due to the non-release of the fund, no development works had been carried out in union councils of rural areas for the last three years. The Nazims said that the union councils used to receive an allocation of the octroi tax but this too had been stopped by the district government on the plea that the National Reconstruction Bureau had issued instructions that no union council of rural area was entitled to receive money from the octroi tax.

They termed this a discrimination against rural union councils of Hyderabad as, according to them, union councils of Badin and other districts had been provided with their share of octroi duty.

They said that the union councils had also some liabilities and a committee had been constituted in this regard which had submitted its report but the DCO was yet to decide the matter.

Those who spoke at the news conference included Tando Haider Union Council Nazim Syed Miran Mohammad Shah, Tando Qaiser Union Council Nazim Syed Roshan Ali Shah, Masoo Bhurgari UC Nazim Syed Faisal Shah Jamote, Hatri UC Nazim Khawand Bux Jahejo, Tando Fazal UC Nazim Ghulam Abbas, Siri Mohammad Thebo UC Nazim Pir Abdul Rasheed Jan Sirhandi and Shaikh Bhirkio UC Nazim Mir Abdul Karim Talpur.