HYDERABAD, Jan 24: The main causes of rising poverty in Sindh are unemployment, water shortage, low prices of crops, increase in agriculture taxes and rise in population.
This was said by the representatives of different village organizations at a workshop, organised by the National Rural Support Programme, Hyderabad region, in Tando Allahyar on Thursday.
They demanded that the agriculture taxes should be reduced, a network of small and cottage industries should be laid in the rural areas, cooperative system should be introduced, non- development expenditure of the government should be curtailed, judicious water distribution should be ensured and the population growth should be brought under control.
They said that the government had done little to ameliorate the lot of the rural people.
They came down hard on the departments of irrigation, education, health and family planning, saying that the departments had failed to provide any relief to the rural population.
Winding up the debate, the regional general manager, NRSP, Prof Aijaz Qureshi, said that the government wanted to evolve a viable policy for poverty alleviation and the NRSP was holding such workshops to collect the opinion of the villagers for conveying it to the government.
Those who spoke at the workshop included Asif Ali Khwaja, Liaquat Ali, Bhai Khan, Haji Khan Talpur and Iftikhar Ahmed.
Over a hundred men and women from Digri, Mirpurkhas, Tando Muhammad Khan, Hala, Tando Allahyar and other towns attended the workshop.
HESCO: The recovery mukhtiarkar, Hesco, circle-I, Hyderabad, has warned the defaulters to pay the dues immediately, warning that otherwise they will be arrested.
He said that around Rs28 million was outstanding against the defaulters of Hyderabad district.
invigilators: The consultative committee of affiliated colleges of the University of Sindh has said those invigilators who have not performed their duties properly in the 2002 examinations will not be assigned duties in future.
This decision was taken at a meeting of the committee, held on Wednesday.
The vigilance committee, headed by Prof Liaquat Aziz, presented a report before the meeting regarding their visits to various examination centres during the recent examinations.
The meeting constituted a committee which will review rules and regulations for invigilation committees and suggest measures to improve performance of invigilators.
It also constituted a committee for devising timetable for college-side examinations.