By by Our correspondent
Niamat Shah, a farmer, claimed the DAP was currently available for Rs3,200, Sona Urea Rs900, Nitrate Rs800 and Super Urea was available for Rs1,100 per 50-kilogram bag, which was out of the purchasing power of the poor farmers. He said most of the local farmers belonged to lower-middle class and could abandon farming owing to high prices of fertilisers and seeds.
Malik Pervez, another farmer, said the sowing season of wheat was about to start but seed was not available in the market, as profiteers had stocked the commodity for black marketing. Haji Atta, another grower, said they were thinking to desert farming owing to black marketing of seeds and fertilisers.
Meanwhile, an official of the Premier Sugar Mills (PSM) in Mardan told ‘The News’ that the government had fixed price of the sugarcane at Rs100 per 50 kilograms, which is quite lucrative for the growers, and there was no reason the growers refuse to supply their produce to the mills. He said the PSM and Khazana Sugar Mills in Peshawar would begin functioning from November 12. He hoped that because of the abundance of sugarcane crop, the growers would supply it to the mills easily.
Power outages, flour shortage: Local people are facing the extensive electricity loadshedding and shortage of flour. Students of the Government College, Toru, staged a protest demonstration against Pesco authorities and closed seven schools in the area.
Later, they held a public meeting at Toru Bazaar where they warned that if the government failed to restore supply of electricity and flour within 24 hours, they would ransack government offices.
The residents of Lundkhwar village protested against the closure of tube-well in the area as they were facing shortage of drinking water. They also shouted slogans against NWFP Senior Minister Rahimdad Khan, who belongs to the constituency.