LAYYAH, Jan 31: A farming association - Green Development Foundation - during a meeting here has urged the government to cut fertilizers' prices by 25 per cent for three years as farmers are facing financial constraints.

The foundation leaders demanded that the government should withdraw general sales tax from pesticides and implement the Kissan Package announced by President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

They criticized the government policies on agriculture, saying that the prices of machinery, fertilizers, pesticides and seeds were beyond the farmers' reach. They said the government had already withdrawn 33 per cent subsidy from electricity bills.

Green Development Foundation President Shaikh Muhammad Yousaf, MPA Ijaz Ahmad Achlana, Maher Rubnawaz Thind and Abdul Rasheed Bodla were among those who addressed the meeting.

BLACKMARKETING: The district government has allegedly failed to check black marketing of daily commodities. Reports said vendors and shopkeepers of flour, vegetables and fruit were charging according to their own sweet will violating the market rates.