Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Punjab president Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo has said that the party will join the sit-ins being staged by the All-Pakistan Kissan Ittehad if the government did not fix support prices for maize, cotton and rice.
In a statement issued on Saturday he said the government alone was responsible for the losses being incurred by farmers in the absence of support prices.
Wattoo said the government was neglecting the agriculture sector. He said it was biased against farmers. He urged the government to fix the prices at Rs2,000 for basmati rice, Rs1,200 for non-basmati paddy and Rs5,000 for raw cotton.
Wattoo said these were the rates set by the PPP government.
He said the government should stop the import of potatoes from India as Indian government was providing farmers with subsidised water, diesel, tractors and electricity.
Wattoo said the previous government had substantially increased the support price for wheat. He said this had turned Pakistan into a wheat-exporting country the following year.
Wattoo said textile exports had increased from $9 billion to $14 billion during the previous government’s tenure. He said the energy crisis had wreaked havoc on the textile industry. Wattoo said the consequent decline in exports had resulted in the loss of billions of dollars to the public exchequer. He said the government had failed to avail the Generalised System of Preferences Plus (GSP Plus) as textile exports had decreased instead of increasing.
Wattoo said the government should provide uninterrupted electricity to farmers for at least three hours to enable farmers to irrigate their fields. He said the present arrangement of supplying electricity at alternative hours was insufficient to satisfy farmers’ needs. Wattoo expressed displeasure over the government’s failure to heed their demands.
He said the government should promote the establishment of solar-powered tube wells by subsidising them. Wattoo said this would satisfy their needs and reduce the burden on the national grid.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 2nd, 2014.
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