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Russia:Ministers, governors told to part with salaries due to poor cotton harvest |
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2004-9-30
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Turkmenistan''s president has ordered six Cabinet ministers and regional governors to forfeit their salaries for three months due to poor cotton harvests, state television reported Tuesday.
President Saparmurat Niyazov accused Deputy Prime Minister Beginch Atamuradov, Water Minister Byashimklych Kalandarov, the governors of four provinces and the heads of state agricultural companies for jeopardizing harvest targets.
"You always lied to me that all is going well with cotton, but in reality we are reaping the bitter fruits of your serious agricultural and technical miscalculations," President Saparmurat Niyazov said at a televised Cabinet meeting Monday evening.
He ordered the officials to forego their salaries for three months.
Cotton is a main agricultural crop in this Central Asian nation, and the official Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper said Tuesday that farmers have collected just 17 percent of the 2.2 million metric tons (2.4 short tons) of cotton forecast for this year. The annual cotton harvest begins in September and normally runs through late October or early November.
Niyazov on Monday also docked the pay of Deputy Prime Minister Dortkuli Aidogdyyev for three months for allowing Georgia to pay for gas from Turkmenistan with sugar, state television said.
"We can make sugar out of sugar beets ourselves," said Niyazov.
Niyazov, who rules the Central Asian nation with an iron hand, often publicly dismisses and reprimands officials. |
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