SWABI, Aug 2: Growers have accused major tobacco companies and small cigarette manufacturers of being involved in a plan to manipulate the quality of tobacco in a bid to push its prices down.

Farmers told this correspondent on Monday that the practice had been going on since the start of the buying season in June. Tobacco purchase, which continued uninterrupted during July, was expected to be completed by August 20 and the companies were expected to buy more than 34 million kilogrammes of tobacco in the NWFP.

Growers said that they did not expect any surplus tobacco this year, adding that they were being offered such low prices that it would be impossible for them to avoid huge financial losses.

Referring to the introduction of a new grading system, they said that a lot of confusion prevailed in this regard, adding that the introduction of 15 grades instead of 12 had devastated them financially.

They said that the new grading system was being used to push prime quality tobacco one or two grades down while medium grade tobacco was being further downgraded. One of the growers, Farooq Khan of Maneri Bala, said that he was offered Rs2,000 per 50 kilogrammes for two bales of what he termed 'No1'quality tobacco bales at the Yar Hussain purchasing depot, adding that its actual price was Rs2,500 for the same weight.

He said that he had to suffer a loss of Rs1,000 on the sale of just two bales of good quality produce. He said that he had taken six bales of tobacco to a purchasing centre of a tobacco company at Charbagh but the prices offered there were so low he decided to take his lot somewhere else.

Similar, views were expressed by a number of other growers. They said that their input cost, including expenditure incurred on cutting of wood and labour wages had risen manifold but buyers did not take these expenses into account, adding that tobacco companies and small cigarette manufacturers persisted with their exploitative tactics.

Growers said that the Pakistan Tobacco Board had deputed one of its representative in every tobacco growing district to check the violation of tobacco marketing law (MLO 487), adding that tobacco companies always kept these officials 'happy' for keeping quite over their buying tactics.

They urged the PTB to play its due role in implementing the tobacco marketing law. Meanwhile, President of the Ittehad-i-Kashtkaran Arif Khan said that the tobacco companies and small cigarette manufacturers should not violate the tobacco market law, adding that growers should not be pushed too hard otherwise they reserved the right to give a protest call.

The president of the growers' alliance alleged that tobacco companies were ignoring small growers and signed agreements with big landholders which in turn created more problems, adding that poor peasants had to run from pillar to post during each purchasing season to sell their produce.

He said a majority of local politicians were running their own businesses and always acted in league with tobacco companies against the growers' interests, adding that they always forced growers to sell their produce at rock bottom prices.

A large number of small-scale cigarette manufacturing units were owned by politicians and they always get a limited quota allocated through the PTB but purchased over and above their quota every year but the PTB officials maintained their silence in this regard, Mr Khan said.

The president of the growers association said that small cigarette manufacturers never signed agreements with small growers which, he said, was illegal, adding that they should sign agreements with each grower in accordance with their individual requirements.

He acknowledged that only two large tobacco companies executed agreements with growers but they ignored a large number of growers and resorted to other ways to deprive growers of their due rights. He said that the closure of three purchasing centres by these major companies had aggravated the situation.