No impending wheat crisis in Sindh, Sindh Assembly informed

KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly was informed on Friday that there was no crisis of wheat availability in the province and there were also stocks of the essential food crop in Karachi.

This was stated by Sindh Food, Excise and Taxation Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla while answering written and oral queries of the lawmakers concerned during the question hour of the session. Chawla informed the House that the Sindh government had imported 400,000 metric tons of wheat, but at present it had also been engaged in locally procuring the essential food crop. He said the Sindh government had set the target of procuring 1.4 million metric tons of wheat during the current crop season.

He assured the lawmakers that the Sindh government would meet the wheat procurement target in the current season.He was of the view that the market price of wheat flour should be Rs125 per kilogramme.

Chawla informed the House that the provincial excise and taxation department had in 2022 collected Rs5 billion in taxes from the province.He told the assembly that there were 4.3 million registered vehicles in the province. The motor vehicle registration offices were present in every district of the province, he said.

The Sindh government had also been registering dumper trucks, Chawla said.Regarding liquor shops in the province, he said there were rules available with the provincial excise department for opening liquor shops in the province. A liquor shop could not be opened in the surroundings of any school, he added.

The excise and taxation minister said no one, not even a non-Muslim, was allowed to publicly consume liquor anywhere in the province.He told the House that the Sindh government did receive complaints regarding the consumption of drugs in educational institutions. He said private schools kept quiet about the drugs issue so that their reputation was not tainted. He urged private schools to give topmost priority to the health and safety of their students instead of thinking about the public image of their schools.

Chawla also asked the education minister to brief the House about the issue.To a question, he said the Sindh government would consider the option of procuring special sniffer dogs for detecting narcotics concealed in consignments.

Meanwhile, Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho said the health department would launch facilities to rehabilitate drug addicts in the province as trained staff would be available at such treatment centres.

She said an awareness campaign had to be launched to protect the school-going children from the menacing issue of drugs. The students should be taught about the effects of drugs on their health, she added.Dr Azra said a prior permission from the parents was required to conduct the test to check whether or not any student was using drugs.