HYDERABAD: Wheat price soars by Rs25 a bag
HYDERABAD, Aug 22: Due to shortage of wheat in the city, the price of the commodity increased by Rs25 per bag of 100 kilograms in 24 hours. The price of wheat in the open market on Saturday was Rs1,155, which on Sunday jumped to Rs1,180 per 100kg bag.
Talking to Dawn, Hyderabad Atta Chakki Owners' Welfare Association president Nawab Ali said the wheat situation in Sindh would further aggravate if the inter-provincial ban on transportation of wheat was not lifted.
He said it was an irony that while the Sindh food department supplied 5,000 bags of wheat per month to roller flour mills, it supplied only 18 bags per week to chakkis. He demanded that the wheat quota of chakkis should be increased.
Kotri Barrage: The superintending engineer, Baghar circle, irrigation, Hyderabad, has made it clear that there is no danger to the Kotri Barrage headwork structure.
In a statement issued here on Sunday, the official, Rafiq Ali Memon, refuted a claim of the CBA Workers' Union, Kotri Barrage, at a press conference on Saturday that ditches had developed in gates 5 and 12.
He further said no stone dumping was needed at the gates. The the divide wall stone apron was also safe and it did not need stone dumping. Under the circumstances, the official added, the question of misuse of funds did not arise.
Mr Memon said the desilting work in the Kalri Baghar Feeder Canal had been carried out satisfactorily. Meanwhile, in a statement issued here, an MNA from Kotri, Nawab Abdul Ghani Talpur, alleged that Shah Awais, Chhachhar and Lakki Shah Sadar pumping schemes in the Kotri taluka had been rendered useless due to inefficiency of irrigation officials.
He said non-availability of water had destroyed standing crops on tens of thousands of acres of land in Lakki Shah Sadar, Manjhand circle, Sann, Lakha union council, and other areas. The MNA demanded that the government should install heavy motors at the pumping stations to ensure adequate water supply to growers.
PROTEST: Activists of the Pakistan Human Rights Forum, led by its chairman Mehboob Sangi and other leaders, took out a procession from GOR Colony to the press club here on Sunday to protest against a criminal assault on a minor girl in Sukkur, kidnapping of Santosh Kumar in Larkana and forced marriage of two minor girls in Bagharji, Sukkur, as quid pro quo in a karo-kari case.
Speaking on the occasion, forum leaders said human rights violations were on the rise in Sindh. They demanded a high-level inquiry into the assault on the girl in Sukkur and constitution of an independent medical board for checkup of the girl.
They criticized police for failing to recover trader Kumar, saying it spoke volumes for inefficiency of the department. They demanded release of Mr Kumar and said influential people involved in his kidnapping should be exposed.
SST: Activists of the Sindhi Shagird Tehrik, students' wing of the Awami Tehrik, observed a token hunger strike outside the press club here on Sunday to protest against a Sindh Assembly resolution granting right to Bengalis and other outsiders to obtain National Identity Cards.