LAHORE, Aug 4: The Punjab government will soon provide laser levelling machines at tehsil level, says provincial minister Arshad Lodhi.

Winding up discussion on his department in the house on Monday, the minister said 2,100 machines would be provided at tehsil level under a special chief minister’s package as the World Bank was financing the project.

In the second phase, the machines, which were earlier being imported at a cost of Rs1 million per item but now are being produced indigenously at a cost of Rs350,00 per item, would be provided at union council level, he added.

He said sugarcane growers’ dues amounting to Rs24.45 billion had been paid by sugar millers while a sum of Rs880 million was still pending with them.

About the WTO regime, he said there was nothing to be worried about and the growers would have to reduce their production cost and improve quality of their produce to encounter it.

The minister said that his department would consider the proposals presented by various members in the house.

Taking part in the discussion, Mujahid Ali Shah regretted that the provincial co-operative bank had been turned into a commercial bank instead of making it a grower-friendly institution.

He said those who were bank defaulters of millions of rupees were being offered incentives and packages while small growers who had obtained minor loans of five to ten thousand rupees were serving terms in jails for failing to repay loans due to one reason or the other.

He also criticized Wapda for highly overcharging tubewell owners for repairing their faulty transfers. He said the flat water rate introduced by the incumbent government was damaging the farming community whose big chunk of land was uncultivable.

MMA’s Asghar Gujjar said the present government had hard hit the farming community by introducing the flat water rate.

He said the government was recovering water cess without providing water.