Govt teams face stiff resistance in retrieving 21-kanal land

MULTAN: The occupants of domestic, commercial and agriculture land resisted the anti-encroachment operation and attacked the government teams on Monday, said the police.

However, heavy contingents of police foiled their resistance and retrieved the occupied land. The city district governments’ anti-encroachment squad launched the operation against the illegal occupants across the BCG Chowk and Ram Kali areas and demolished illegal structures, buildings and shops.

The CDG teams faced strong resistance from the occupants. The occupants said they had legal documents but the administration was politically victimising them due to their affiliation with the Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz.

The squad claimed to retrieve 21-kanal precious piece of state land from illegal possession. The CDG members said that the occupants had no valid documents and they were illegally occupying the lands since long.

Talking to journalists, Deputy Commissioner Mudassar Riaz Malik said that he was personally monitoring the whole operation. The retrieved land is owned by Multan Zila Council. He said heavy machinery was used in the operation and all the shops had been demolished which were established on the state land.

The DC said that the CDG would recover a heavy amount from the illegal occupants in fines besides taking legal action against them. He said the administration had prepared the revenue record of illegally-occupied state land across the city. “The administration will soon launch a mega operation against the illegal occupants and will not accept any internal or external pressure during the operation,” he added.

Govt urged to allocate 1pc GDP for agriculture research: Agriculture experts and cotton growers have urged the government to allocate one per cent GDP for agriculture research from the current allocation of 0.2 per cent.

They also stressed that the government should adopt a policy which would promote the cotton-related business. They were speaking at a seminar held to discuss the increase in cotton production to strengthen the economy. The seminar was organized by Multan Central Cotton Research Institute on Monday.

The seminar made 19 recommendations and pledged the government, growers and the industry to jointly make efforts to achieve this year’s production target of 15 million bales by using modern technology. It should ensure high-quality agriculture inputs at minimum prices and reducing the exports of fertilisers and pesticides. The speakers urged the provincial governments to equip the agriculture sector with most modern technology. The government should provide financial and technical assistance on prevention of pink bollworm.

The cotton industry should introduce separate prices for different grades of cotton and the federal government must ensure cotton prices to the growers according to the international market, they stressed. They urged the government to ensure gas supply to fertiliser factories.

The Pak-Arab factory has been closed for two years due to unavailability of gas. The prices of fertilisers have increased from 30 to 50 per cent crop per yield, hence gas supply is compulsory to the fertilisers’ plants for crop survival, they added. The seminar participants appealed to the government to stop the spread of urbanisation to save agriculture ecology.

“The government should play its role to stable the prices of potato.” Minister National Food Security and Research Sahibzada Mehboob Sultan, former speaker National Assembly Syed Fakhar Imam, Jahangir Khan Tareen, Punjab minister Hussain Jehania Gardezi, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Asif Ali, cotton commissioner Khalid Abdullah, CCRI director Zahid Mehmood and others also spoke on the occasion.