Pakistan Kissan Board (PKB), Punjab on Friday demanded that the government reduce the prices of agricultural inputs, including electricity, gas, petroleum and fertilisers, by at least 50 percent so the agro products' prices could be decreased and the common man could be provided with relief.
Provincial Chief Khurshid Kanju announced that the board would launch a movement "Zarat Bachao Tehrik" in all provinces to press the government for solution of the farmers' problems. He said that during the movement, protest demonstrations and seminars would be held across the country and "if the farmer's peaceful movement failed to move the government, we will march towards Islamabad to stage a sit-in during the first week of April, which will continue till our demands are fulfilled."
Kanju said the Kissan Board was a countrywide, organised association struggling for farmers' rights. He also compared the prices of agricultural inputs and products of India and Pakistan, saying that the fertilisers available for Rs 658 per sack in India, were being sold for Rs 540 to farmers in Pakistan.
"In India, the electricity is provided to farmers for Rs 0.6 per unit, while its cost is Rs 3.28 per unit in Pakistan," he said, adding, "Tractors, seed, and pesticides are far cheaper in India than in Pakistan." "The government's anti-farmer policies and high production cost are discouraging farmers, that is why the government is importing staples like sugar, onion and potatoes from India," he added.
"We would have been self-sufficient and our government would have no need of importing things from India, if the cost of production were low," he said.
To a question, Kanju said the reports of gur smuggling to Afghanistan was a propaganda of the sugar mills owners, "who want to topple gur industry in the province to boost their business."
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