SUKKUR, Sept 21: The Environmental Protection Agency has approved a plan to launch a campaign against smoke-emitting vehicles in the province from Oct 1.

In a press briefing here on Monday, the adviser to the Sindh chief minister on environment and alternative energy, Noman Saigal, said regional directorates of the EPA had been directed in this regard.

He said under the plan, the EPA could take legal action against owners of smoke-emitting vehicles and it could issue notices and challans to them. Mr Saigal said the EPA would involve NGOs and journalists in the campaign and hold seminars and field workshops in different areas to create awareness among people.

He also announced upgradation of the regional directorate of the EPA, Sukkur, and said another regional office would soon be established in Larkana. He admitted that the Sindh EPA was understaffed and added that the matter would be taken up with the chief minister to fill the vacancies.

SICK INDUSTRIES: Minister of State for Industries and Production Ali Nawaz Mahar has said sick industrial units in Sindh will be revived soon, which will generate job opportunities.

He was talking to journalists in Khangarh, Ghotki, on Monday night. The minister said district governments had been directed to coordinate with provincial and federal governments in carrying out development projects.

He said people having meager resources would be encouraged and offered loans from Rs100,000 to Rs5 million to set up small industries. He said he had directed provincial and federal departments to encourage small investments in the industrial sector, especially in agro-based and cottage industries.

Mr Mahar said the government was making efforts to reduce unemployment through industrialization and by increasing productivity in all sectors. He praised President Gen Pervez Musharraf for taking keen interest in welfare of neglected areas of the province, especially Ghotki.

He said the president would review recommendations finalized at a meeting under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi in Sukkur a couple of days back.

He observed that the Ghotki district was the biggest contributor of revenue after Karachi to the national exchequer but it had been denied its due share in the past. He hoped that multi-national companies engaged in oil, gas and energy sectors would invest in health, education and other departments.

Earlier, the minister held meetings with Sukkur District Nazim Syed Nasir Hussain Shah and Ghotki District Nazim Sardar Ali Gohar Mahar and discussed development projects being carried out in the two districts.

FARMERS PROTEST: Hundreds of agriculturists held a protest demonstration at the Daharki bypass on Monday against non-availability of water in the Reti Minor for two months.

Led by Mir Mahar, Jam Fateh Samejo, Mohammad Saddiq Mahar and others, the protesters raised slogans against Irrigation Minister Nadir Akmal Leghari. They said the Reti Minor was without water despite the minister's assurance during his visits to the area that water would soon be released into the minor.

The protesters regretted that their rice and cotton crops were drying up due to non-availability of water. They warned that they would stage a sit-in outside the irrigation minister's house in Daharki if water was not released into the minor in two days.