Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) will stage a sit-in at Thokar Niaz Baig to press their demand for wheat and sugarcane support prices to be fixed at Rs2,000 and Rs300 per 40kg each.
Farmers have started arriving at Thokar Niaz Baig Tuesday evening for the scheduled sit-in to be staged on Wednesday (today). The activists of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad have started blocking flow of traffic entering Lahore till acceptance of their demands. According to details, Central President of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad Malik Zulfiqar said that the government should increase the wheat support price to Rs2,000 in Punjab, which the Sindh has already increased to Rs2,000.
Chairman Kissan Ittehad Chaudhry Anwar demanded that the government to fix electricity rate for agriculture tube wells at Rs5.35 per unit. Reduce the price of fertilizers by offering subsidy and abolish the token system. He said that farmer market should be set up across Punjab. This time the sit-in will not end until the demands are met. Malik Zulfiqar, on the other hand, has been preparing breakfast for the farmers who have arrived at Thokar Niaz Beg from all over Punjab since last night. He said that all the farmers will sit here till the acceptance of their demands.
The PKI demanded the government to fix support prices of wheat and sugarcane at Rs2,000 and Rs300 per 40kg respectively. It is pertinent to mention here that the provinces as well as the centre have differences over the support price of wheat. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet had recently fixed wheat support price at Rs1,600 for the next year’s crop.
Sindh cabinet in a meeting fixed the wheat support price in province at Rs2,000 per 40kg. Punjab and Balochistan had recommended to the federal government to fix maximum wheat procurement support price at Rs1,700 per 40kg, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa proposed Rs1,880 per 40kg.
Punjab’s Food Minister Abdul Aleem Khan had criticized Sindh over the support price for wheat and termed it an ‘unwise’ decision.
