‘Work on new province to start from April 1’

LAHORE : Provincial Law and Social Welfare Minister Raja Basharat has said that important decisions have been taken under the chair of Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar during cabinet meeting regarding coping up with coronavirus, official wheat procurement, South Punjab, issuance of number plates and many others.

He explained the details of the decisions taken during the cabinet meeting in a press conference along with provincial ministers.

He maintained that Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has started implementing the promise which Prime Minister Imran Khan had made with the masses for setting up South Punjab province.

During the first phase, Additional Chief Secretary, Additional IG and Special Secretaries of other departments will start working officially at Multan and Bahawalpur from 1st of April. Raja Basharat stated that effective policy would be chalked out to garner support of opposition parties for getting the bill approved for setting up South Punjab province in Punjab Assembly, he added.

He stated that citizens were facing a lot of difficulties regarding issuance of vehicle number plates for which approval for giving contract has been granted.

Raja Basharat intimated that approval had also been accorded for reorganising Sports and Tourism Departments and making a new department. Many important decisions will be made in coming days with regard to removing deprivations of South Punjab and matters pertaining to budget and development projects.

Provincial Food Minister Samiuallah Chaudhry on this occasion said that final approval had been granted for wheat procurement policy 2020-21 according to which official rate of wheat has been fixed at Rs1,400 per maund; 45 lakh metric ton wheat procurement target had been fixed during current year. For the facilitation of farmers and cultivators, arrangements have been made at the established centres of Food Department for making their payments so that they may not have to go to the remote areas banks branches. The gardawari system of previous regime had been abolished. Complaint centres will be set up for redressing the complaints of cultivators where their complaints will be registered 24 hours.

According to the figures, 19 million metric ton wheat is expected to be produced during this time but there are also apprehensions for getting the wheat affected due to rains and hail storms. Wheat will be procured initially form those cultivators whose district boundaries are joined with Sindh province like (Rahim Yar Khan and DG Khan), he concluded.