Karachi:The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) has invited the attention of chief minister (CM) Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah to important issue of the SME farmers in Sindh and urged him to facilitate the underprivileged sector from being exploited by the departments.
President of UNISAME Zulfikar Thaver said the government of Sindh had given 4 to 8 acres of land to small farmers for cultivation, poultry, and cattle farming during 1986 to 1992 on 30 years renewable lease.
The SME farmers worked very hard and toiled to develop their small pieces of land and doing small businesses after making reinvestments over a period of time and facing all hardships of rain, storms and floods.
He said the lease of these lands is expiring or in some cases has already expired. The government is not extending it on one pretext or the other and the officers are asking for extra ordinary gratifications to renew it. If the lease is not extended, the SME farmers will suffer a lot.
Thaver said mostly they are illiterate and poor people and are not in a position to go into litigation. He said the vegetables and milk in Karachi are supplied by them. The matter needs attention of the authorities concerned.
The officers are extracting money from these SMEs and threatening them of non-extension of lease giving all kinds of stories, he regretted.
UNISAME Council requested the Senior member Board of Revenue ( BOR) Shahid Qazi to kindly do the needful in the best interest of the SME farmers and take up the matter with CM and give relief to the SME farmers who are not in a position to protect their rights and defend themselves and appear helpless in front of the officers who are resorting to high handedness.
The Small and Medium Farmers Association (SMEFA) committee members also urged the CM to immediately take action and make life easy for the SME farmers who are in great difficulties because of lockdown and disrupted supply chain of their produce.