DCs asked to ensure urea sale at fixed rate in 24 hours

LAHORE: Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman, on Monday, gave a deadline of 24 hours to the deputy commissioners to ensure the availability of urea at the fixed price as the Punjab government decided to take strict administrative measures to prevent profiteering of fertilizer in the province.

Presiding over a video link meeting of all the deputy commissioners at the Civil Secretariat, the chief secretary directed the district administration to mobilise all the staff in the field to control the fertilizer prices. He said that the government was giving subsidies on fertilizer for farmers, not for profiteers. He said that the overpricing of fertilizers was harming the government's efforts to provide relief to farmers.

The chief secretary said that the prices and availability of fertilizers would be reviewed on a daily basis and nobody would be allowed to exploit the farmers by creating artificial shortage of fertilizers. The hoarders and profiteers would be dealt with iron hands, he added.

The secretary agriculture briefed the meeting about fertilizer prices, demand and supply. He said that this month, 76 cases were registered, 36 dealers were arrested, 17,800 bags of fertilizer were seized and fines of Rs9 million were imposed for overcharging. The meeting was attended by Additional IG Special Branch and officers concerned while all divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners participated through a video link.