Fuel or famine? farmers question

The Sindh Abadgar Ittehad, an organisation working for rights of farmers, has disputed the government's stance of raising the fuel prices as a consequence of the ongoing war against Iran. Led by its head Nawab Zubair Talpur, Ittehad staged a protest outside Hyderabad press club on Monday, demanding reduction in the price of diesel fuel to Rs250 per litre. "There is no justification for keeping the price higher than Rs250 litres other than exploiting the people in the name of taxes," he argued. He alleged that the government earned over Rs1,200 billion through taxes of petroleum products in the first 10 months of the existing fiscal year. He deplored that on one hand the farmer's are being compelled to buy expensive fuel and on the other hand the government is neither controlling overpriced inputs nor underrated crop prices. Referring to the Sindh government's claim of buying wheat from farmers at the rate of Rs3,500 per 40 kilograms, he maintained that only a few of the government's wheat procurement centres have so far been opened in the province, as the growers have been left on the mercy of the open market middlemen. The Ittehad demanded that the government should increase the procurement rate of wheat to Rs4,500 per 40 kg and that of the cotton crop to Rs10,000 per 40 kg. The protesters also called for bringing an end to irrigation water shortage.