Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Punjab President Manzoor Wattoo has expressed concern over the slow pace of ongoing procurement of wheat from farmers.
In a statement issued on Sunday, he said that the distribution of gunny bags through middle man must be stopped forthwith to ensure their availability to the farmers directly without delay and political considerations.
He pointed out that protest of the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad under the leadership of Punjab Assembly Member Khurram Jehangir Wattoo on Saturday in Deepalpur should open the eyes of the mandarins as they decided to set for long march in the month of June this year to press for the acceptance of their demands.
He congratulated the farmers and the organisers for organising a big protest against the government’s policy.
He maintained it was height of injustice against the farmers’ community as they were subjected to an additional tax on agricultural produces while they were already paying tax on land holding.
The tax on produces must be withdrawn immediately as farmers were already fed up to the limits with the senseless anti-framers policy of the current government.
He said that the PPP would not leave the farmers of Punjab during their testing times and would stand shoulder to shoulder in their struggle for the acceptance of their legitimate demands.
Commenting on the Rural Roads Programme announced by the chief minister recently, he said that allocation of Rs 15 billion during the current financial year was too little and too late because it required about Rs 50 billion to repair the roads of one district alone, Okara, and his claim of revolution with this kind of allocations was clearly tantamount to plying to the gallery.
He maintained that the erroneous development priorities of the government had already created a yawning gap of economic disparities between Lahore and the rest of the province thus defying the narrative of sustainable and balanced economic development.
Spending Rs 165 billion to refurbish the whole infrastructure– roads, health and education- of the whole province is certainly much more preferred development strategy by any criterion rather than spending the same huge money on the Orange Line Metro Rail Project in Lahore.
He asked the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz parliamentarians hailing from rural areas to show some courage and fight for the rights of the people who had elected them to represent them for safeguarding their due share in the development of the province.
