VEHARI, Nov 27: Expressing concern over the acute water shortage in the district, farmers have demanded that the crisis should be resolved on priority basis.
Talking to newsmen here on Tuesday, Kissan Board Pakistan’s Vehari president Haji Tufail Warriach, farmers’ spokesmen Maqbool Ahmad Khilchi, Sardar Muhammad Chaudhry and Rai Zahoor Ahmed Kharal said that the wheat and other crop would suffer badly if alternative arrangements were not made immediately.
They said that the government had slashed the water quota of the Punjab and Sindh owing to acute water shortage. Maximum canal and minors had been closed which was an alarming situation for wheat growers.
They demanded that the prices of diesel and electricity tariff should be reduced besides provision of seeds, fertilizers and agriculture equipment on subsidized rates to farmers.
A farmer of 54WB, Muhammad Aslam, told Dawn that the Pakpattan canal has been closed from the last one year. “Water was released into the canal only during the recent visit of the Punjab governor to Vehari. Next day, the canal was closed down.”
He also alleged that the officials of the irrigation department demand bribe for releasing water in the canal. He also demanded that the government should provide interest-free loans to farmers to install tube-wells, so that they could water their crops.
He also demanded provision of electricity supply to Chak No 54WB. “This is only village without electricity in the district,” he said.
SUBSIDIZED FLOUR BAGS: Around 50,000 flour bags of 20kg each would be sold at the subsidized rate of Rs149 per bag in the district during Ramazan.
District food controller Syed Naseem Husain Shah told Dawn on Tuesday that 20,015 bags would be sold in Vehari city, 14,000 in Mailsi and 16,185 in Burewala.
He said that 15,000 bags would be sold in Jalla Jeem, Fidda Town, Karampur, Tibba Sultanpur, Luddan, Sheikh Fazal, Dokota, and Fatehpur.
The subsidized flour bags would be sold in the second and fourth weeks of Ramazan in areas identified by union council Nazims under the supervision of food department and Vehari market committee. “Every person will get one bag only,” he said.
Fifty-seven sale point have been set up in various part of the district. Vehari has 12, Mailsi 7 and Burewala 38.
Meanwhile, a group of citizen complained that the food department and market committees have set up sale points at unfamiliar places in Vehari.