MARDAN: Local growers have demanded a tax waiver and compensation following the destruction of their crops by rains and hailstorm on the second Eid day.

They also threatened agitation against the government after a week on the matter.

The growers, including Himayatullah Mayar, Abbas Khan Sani, Roze Mohammad Khan, Munir Khan, Haji Sabzali and Qamar Zaman, were speaking at a news conference here on Wednesday.

Mayar complained the provincial government didn’t take huge damage to standing crops by torrential rains and hailstorm seriously and had left growers high and dry.

He said none of the ministers had visited affected growers to sympathise with them over the loss.

Mayar said torrential rains, hailstorm and strong winds damaged sugarcane and other standing crops causing millions of rupees worth of loss to growers, mostly poor ones.

He said Dheri, Sangao, Jamal Gari, Kanlang-one, Mian Khan, Bashkhali Tawoos and Par Hoti Khat Kali were the areas badly affected by the natural calamity.

Mayar said neither ministers nor the ruling party lawmakers and relevant government officials had bothered to visit the calamity-hit areas for damage assessment.

He said the ruling party’s ministers and lawmakers were wasting their energies in the Islamabad sit-in against the federal government instead of coming to the help of the people of own province in distress.

He and other speakers demanded that the provincial government not only waive off the growers’ taxes but also compensate them for their losses.

They asked the government to conduct a survey of the affected areas to assess the losses for compensation.

The speakers threatened to agitate against the government after one week on the matter.

Published in Dawn, October 9th , 2014