Karachi
At least 1.25 metric tons of surplus wheat was lying in government silos due to the poor policies of federal government and the restrictions on its export, said Sindh food minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah on Monday while responding to written and oral queries of lawmakers.
Speaking during the question hour during Monday’s session, he said two years ago the federal government had imported substandard wheat from Ukraine which was made its way to Sindh from Punjab. Owing to that decision, he said, the provincial government now faced problems in storing or selling its own stock of surplus wheat.
He said the federal government still hadn’t fulfilled its promise of sharing the cost of subsidy on wheat, amounting to $45 per metric ton, for its export from the province to dispose of the large quantities of essential food commodity lying in surplus with the government.
The food minister said the government faced a serious problem in storing wheat since the silos only had room for 700,000 metric tons. However, he said, new silos will be built for enhancing wheat storage capacity of the province.
He said substandard wheat adulterated with rice had been smuggled in Sindh from neighbouring areas of Punjab, and vigilance committees were being established for checking the inter-provincial smuggling of the essential food commodity.
The minister said the Sindh food department had also been approached for the imposition of Section-144 to stop inter-provincial smuggling and movement of wheat.
Earlier, he said, the provincial food department used to constitute its vigilance committees only during procurement season but now the committees will operate throughout the year. He said the vigilance committees will also be empowered to raid markets and warehouses for checking the smuggling of wheat. The minister said these vigilance committees had also prepared several references of recoveries of worth Rs600 million from unscrupulous elements and had forwarded them to the Anti-Corruption Establishment and other investigation agencies.
Meanwhile, he said, a separate provincial food authority should also be established for checking the quality of food being served at various eateries, hotels and restaurants. He said a bill will soon be tabled in the Sindh Assembly for this purpose.
To another question, the minister said that soon the government’s wheat storage facility in Lateefabad, Hyderabad will be moved another location outside the town because it hindered the flow of vehicular traffic.
Water shortage
Earlier, Sindh local government minister Jam Khan Shoro informed the provincial assembly that Lyari had been facing a shortage of water owing to the suspension of supply from the Hub Dam.
He said around 550 million gallons of water per day was being supplied from the Dhabeji pumping station and it only fulfilling around half of the bulk water needs of the city.
He said around 100 MGD water was supplied from the Hub Dam and this had been stopped recently since there had been no major occurrence of rain in its catchment area in Balochistan.
Shoro said the provincial govt had been trying its best to improve the distribution of water from the Dhabeji pumping station and in this regard the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board had also taken some steps.