Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Punjab President Manzoor Wattoo Monday has strongly criticised the distribution of gunny bags on political basis.
He said that distribution of gunny bags on political basis must stop forthwith, adding that the farmers of the country were already fed up with the anti-farmer policy of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government since it came to power.
He said that the distribution of gunny bags through the ruling party’s assembly members is going on unabatedly leaving the majority of the farmers high and dry as their wheat will be at mercy of middle men and the mill owners who will buy the produce at price fixed by them unilaterally.
He said that the government functionaries at the wheat procurement centres were deeply engaged in this misdeed as they distribute the rest of gunny bags among those who agree to give them kickbacks.
Despite fourth consecutive bumper crop of the province, the growers were facing acute economic hardships because the cost of per acre of cultivating the crop was more than the return, he said.
The growers of rice, sugarcane, maze and potatoes were already devastated but the indifference of the government to their plight was almost of criminal proportion, he added.
