HYDERABAD:
Sindh Abadgar Ittehad, an organization working for farmers’ rights, has questioned the government’s stance of increasing fuel prices in the wake of the ongoing war against Iran. Led by its director Nawab Zubair Talpur, Ittehad staged a protest outside the Hyderabad Press Club on Monday, demanding a reduction in the price of diesel fuel to Rs 250 per litre.
“There is no other justification for keeping the price above Rs 250 per liter other than exploiting people in the name of taxes,” he argued. He alleged that the government earned more than Rs 1,200 billion through taxes on petroleum products in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year.
He regretted that, on the one hand, farmers are forced to buy expensive fuel and, on the other, the government does not control expensive inputs or undervalued crop prices. Referring to the Sindh government’s claim to purchase wheat from farmers at the rate of Rs 3,500 per 40 kilograms, he maintained that only a few government wheat procurement centers have been opened in the province so far as farmers have been left at the mercy of open market middlemen.
The Ittehad demanded that the government increase the procurement rate of wheat to Rs 4,500 per 40 kg and that of cotton crop to Rs 10,000 per 40 kg. Protesters also called for an end to irrigation water shortages.
