Members from the People’s Assembly’s Agriculture Committee have severely criticized Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali for not attending a committee meeting two days ago. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss outstanding payments by the Sugar Company to farmers who supplied it with their sugar cane harvest.
Committee members urged President Mubarak to intervene in favor of the farmers and threatened to lodge a complaint to the president against the Finance Minister for “ignoring the demands of the farmers.”
Abdel Rehim el-Ghoul, head of the committee, said Boutros-Ghali must answer to the committee as the figure responsible for all the financial problems relating to farmers.
El-Ghoul called on MP Ahmed el-Mansi, secretary of farmers’ affairs in the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), to refer the matter to the NDP’s Secretary General Safwat el-Sherif. MP Sayyed el-Fayoumi on the other hand said the matter should be referred directly to the president.
Meanwhile, MP Ahmed Saad Darwish said there is a rumor that farmers have not been paid because the government is trying to discourage them from growing sugar cane which requires large quantities of water.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
