The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) has make arrangements for funds and storage facilities to purchase cotton from the growers and will start buying it from Friday, Parliamentary Secretary for Food and Agriculture, Liaquat Ali khan said while responding to a calling attention notice in the National Assembly here on Thursday.
The notice was filed by Riaz Fatyana, Talib Hassan Nakai, Sardar Bahadur Ahmed Khan Sihar, Mahmood Hayat Khan, Toochi Khan and Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan. Liaquat said that the TCP was not supposed to purchase cotton as the growers were not getting sufficient return of their crop from the domestic market, but on the direction of Prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, the corporation had been tasked to purchase it to save growers from the loss.
The government asked the corporation to make arrangements for its proper storage after purchase and also provide the required funds, he added. Sardar Bahadur Khan raised objection that the growers were picking cotton for the last one-and-a-half month in many areas across the country. They were not getting proper rates that had increased the risks of less crop production for the next season, he added.
He said that earlier the ginning mills were closed due to power shortage and they had insufficient funds to buy cotton directly from the growers. They were craving for an extension in cash limits by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
The Passco had been given a task for the procurement of one million tonnes of paddy and for this purpose, it had opened 70 centres in various rice mills across the country, he said.
The Parliamentary Secretary told the house as the input prices had gone up, the government had also increased the support price for the procurement of Super Basmati at Rs 1,500 per 40 kilograms and for paddy Rs 700 per 40 kilograms.
He said the oil prices in the international market were declining whereas the prices of the agri inputs had not gone down proportionately in the country, which was a matter of serious concern for the growers.
On another calling attention notice, raised by Abdul Qadir Patel, Talat Mahesar and Dr Abdul Wahid Soomro, the attention of the government was invited towards environmental pollution caused by unloading of coal and cement at Karachi Port Trust, which was a source of health hazard for the residents of Keamari. Responding to the notice, Minister for Ports and Shipping Nabeel Gabol said that a wall was being erected to reduce the affect of environmental pollution.
On this, the movers of the notice said that a wall could not stop pollution and there was no law to unload such material at the port. So, why the PPP had given permission for this. The minister said: "We are planning to shift coal and cement unloading to the Gwadar port."
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