Punjab Chief Minister Reviews Wheat, Flour Supply, Sugarcane Crushing Situation

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar Thursday chaired a meeting here at his here to review prices as well as demand and supply of flour and wheat, along with ongoing sugarcane crushing and payments to farmers in the province

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Jan, 2020 ) :Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar Thursday chaired a meeting here at his here to review prices as well as demand and supply of flour and wheat, along with ongoing sugarcane crushing and payments to farmers in the province.

He ordered for initiating indiscriminate action against flour mills involved in the sale of allocated wheat quota in the open market. He also directed the authorities concerned to further streamline monitoring of exit points as the public interest was supreme.

Hurdles would not be tolerated in provision of flour at the suitable rate and the people should not face any difficulty in that regard, he said. Action would be initiated in case of any complaint and the wheat procured by the flour mills from the Food Department must be made available in the market in the shape of flour, he added.

The chief minister said 100 per cent grinding of procured wheat should be ensured and the process should be regularly monitored along with submission of a report about it.

Usman Buzdar reiterated that there should be no shortage of flour anywhere in the province and directed the Food Department that flour mills should be bound to establish fair-price shops where flour should be available at ex-mill rate.

The provincial minister for food should take a lead for solution to different issues and indiscriminate action should also be taken against the corrupt elements in the Food Department, he added.

The secretary food said the Food Department was daily releasing 4,000-metric-ton wheat to the flour mills and ample wheat reserves were available in the province. The wheat quota of flour mills, failing to abide by the rules and regulations, had been suspended and there was no dearth of wheat or flour in the province, he added.

The meeting also reviewed the sugarcane crushing season and payments to the farmers. The chief minister was told that the sugar mills were currently engaged in crushing. Crushing of 10-million-metric-ton sugar cane had been done and 10.51-lakh-ton sugar reserves were available in the province. Last year, 99 per cent payments were made to the sugarcane farmers and around 80 per cent payments had also been made this year.

Buzdar said interests of the sugarcane farmers would be safeguarded by the government. In compliance with the government's clear-cut instructions, some non-functional sugar mills had also started crushing.

He said sugar mill owners would not be allowed to deduct sugarcane weight and farmers would be given a full reward of their hard work. The PTI government had protected the farmers' rights by increasing the support prices of wheat and sugarcane crops, he said and regretted that the past government exploited the farmers by not increasing the support prices of the two crops.