By: Kamran Khamiso Khowaja
SUJAWAL: Growers of district Suawal have condemned the Sindh Government’s decision to impose a ban on the cultivation of paddy on the left bank of the river Indus and demanded lifting the ban to save them from financial ruin.
Bahadur Lothaiyo who has vast experience cultivating Paddy said that after the super flood of 2010 paddy cultivation provided financial stability to them and the land of Sujawal was ideal for paddy cultivation but the government,s decision to impose a ban on that would inflict huge financial loss to the local growers.
Syed Mumtaz Shah said Paddy was the foremost source of earning for them and if the ban on its cultivation continued it would lead to a drought-like situation in the area.
Abdullah Mirbhar Said that It was an Anti-grower move of the Sindh Government that aimed at compelling growers to cultivate sugarcane to appease mill owners.
Social Activist and Member STP Ayaz Lashari Said that; This move of the Sindh Government would plunge the people of Sindh into acute financial crisis adding that owing to less prices growers were not earning much of vegetables and paddy was probably the only source of financial uplift to them. He vowed to launch a province-wide campaign if the ban was not lifted.
Leaders of Sindh Abadgar Etihad in a meeting held on the other day in Hyderabad said that the ban on the cultivation of Paddy in the coastal areas of Badin, Thatta, and Sujawal was incomprehensible as these areas received water
only for six months. The leaders urged the Sindh Government to review their decision and exclude these districts from the list.