HYDERABAD, April 20 The Sindh Oil and Gas Field Land Owners Association on Monday called for increase in the annual rent of land acquired by the oil companies to Rs150,000 per acre and warned if the OGDC did not solve their problems within 15 days they would be compelled to protest.

The office-bearers of the association Haji Badar Memon, Mir Ghulam Mohammad Talpur and others said at a news conference at the press club that oil and gas companies had not increased a single penny in the rent of their land since 2000 when the rent was fixed at Rs35,000 per acre.

They termed it a great injustice with land owners, particularly because the OGDC was earning billions of rupees from their lands. Badar Memon claimed that only one tenth of the total income from the acquired lands was being paid as compensation to land owners.

He complained that the OGDC did not pay a single paisa to land owners for rehabilitation when the land was vacated. Besides, people from other provinces were being recruited by the oil and gas companies at the cost of locals who were being completely ignored.

No development had been carried out in the areas where the companies were extracting precious fuel, Memon said and added that Hyderabad DCO had recommended to the Ministry of Petroleum to solve problems of land owners but no action had been taken so far.

He demanded that the annual rent should be raised, the OGDC should pay Rs1,000,000 per acre to land owners for rehabilitation after the land was vacated and the rent should be revised upwards every second year.

He said that the families of land owners should be provided free medical treatment, quota in employment for the land owners should be allocated and local educated youths should be given jobs instead of recruiting employees from other provinces.

He said that the companies` local welfare fund should be spent on local hospitals, schools and provision of other facilities and land owners should be given bonus from the companies` profit.

They warned that if the OGDC administration did not solve their problems within 15 days they would be compelled to protest.