LARKANA: Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) leaders Irfan Jatoi, Ursla Selro, Mohsin Ali Qazi, Ghulam Rasool Jatoi and others in a press conference at the Larkana Press Club said that growers are facing financial loses in a dispute between federal and Sindh governments.
The share of urea fixed by the federal government was 20% which has now been increased to 23%, they said and alleged that the Sindh government is directly involved in shortage of urea across Sindh which is its sheer negligence because the Sindh government gets 20,000 bags for Sukkur and Larkana Regions on a daily basis which include 7000 bags of Larkana. They said in Larkana, since two days one urea bag is being sold between Rs2400 to 2800 rupees instead of 1770.
They said that the Sindh government is devastating the agriculture sector after destroying everything. They said that 19 trollers of urea fertilizer arrived in Larkana yesterday and every troller contains 660 bags. They said that Riaz Ahmed Soomro and Ahmed Ali Soomro (assistant commissioner) seized a troller which contained 1200 bags and they kept 600 bags for themselves and sold 100 bags out of them but nobody knows where other bags went.
They said PPP ministers, advisers, MNAs, MPAs and leaders are involved in the shortage of urea in Sindh for which 90% of the Sindh government is responsible. They said that urea fertilizer dealers are currently black marketing urea and charging Rs1000 per bag more but sadly no one will notice.
They alleged that 1900 bags are available at a Rice Mill located on Wagan Road and 22,000 more bags are available at Dewan Rice Mill at the moment in Larkana city adding at present there are 45,000 to 50,000 urea bags available in Larkana city which were being sold in the black market instead of being sold openly at official prices which will reduce wheat production and small growers and farmers will suffer the loss.
They said that in every district of the province, Assistant Commissioners accompanied by Agriculture Department officials are selling urea bags after capturing them, adding if this system continues then tillers and growers will never get a bag of urea. They demanded that urea be supplied to all farmers and growers on government rates without loss of further time so that tillers could be protected from further financial loss or else, they warned, they will take out effigy of the Sindh government on 30th December and hold a large protest demonstration in Larkana.
Assistant Commissioner, Larkana, Ahmed Ali Soomro said, “I am not a farmer nor do I have any bags of urea information. He said we will sell the urea fertilizers we have together with the leaders of the SAB”. Soomro said that if any dealer has sold urea of Larkana’s quota to other districts, he will be referred to relevant authorities for filing an FIR against them.