LAHORE: Giving a six-point charter of demands, a farmers’ group has warned the government of a sit-in in Islamabad if its demands are not accepted within 15 days.

Speaking at a joint press conference on Monday, newly-formed Kisan Ittehad Chairman Rao Tariq Ashfaq, Punjab President Abdur Rauf Tatla and others said if the government didn’t accept their demands, they would be forced to stage a sit-in in Islamabad from Nov 10.

Their demands included sugarcane support price at Rs250 per 40kg and wheat at Rs2,000 per 40kg, cut in farm tube-well power tariff down to Rs4 per unit, subsidy on fertilisers and implementation of the amended sugarcane law.

The farmers’ leaders said 70pc of the country had been completely ignored and they were fleeced by the government in the procurement of wheat and by the private sector in the purchase of sugarcane crops.

Rejecting the support price of Rs200 per 40kg for sugarcane announced by the Punjab government for this season, they argued that it was Rs189 per 40kg when sugar retail price was Rs60 per kg while the sweetener was now being sold at Rs110 per kg so the government should fix the sugarcane support price at Rs250 per 40kg.

They sought Rs2,000 per 40kg support price for wheat to keep the prices on a par with the international market rates for checking smuggling of the commodity out of the country. To provide relief to the urban consumers, they argued, the government could give Rs400 per 40kg subsidy for the local market.

The farmers lauded the amended Sugarcane Act, saying it gave them a sense of protection and called for its implementation in letter and spirit.

They demanded Rs4 per unit flat electricity rate for farm tube-wells to make farming sustainable as the current Rs12 per unit rate was not affordable for the growers.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2020