Cabinet approves wheat procurement target of 900,000 tonnes at Rs4,000/40kg

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday presided over the first meeting of his newly formed cabinet that decided a wheat procurement target of 900,000 tonnes for a price of Rs4,000 per 40 kilogrammes in the new crop season.

The cabinet meeting also expressed its reservations about the appointment of the Chairman of the Indus Rivers System Authority (Irsa), stating that it violated the Water Accord.

The meeting was held at the CM House and attended by provincial ministers Sharjeel Memon, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Nasir Hussain Shah, Syed Sardar Ali Shah, Saeed Ghani, Jam Khan Shoro, Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, Mohammad Bux Mahar, Haji Ali Hassan Zardari and Zulfiqar Shah; provincial Advisers Babal Khan Bahyo, Ehsan Mazari and Najmi Alam; new chief secretary Asif Hyder Shah; and Sindh advocate general and prosecutor general.

The cabinet said the Irsa chairman should be selected from among the members of the provinces or the federal government and no one from outside could be appointed as the chairman of Irsa because that would be a clear violation of the Water Accord.

Wheat

Shoro, Sindh food minister, told the meeting that a stock of 400,000 tonnes of wheat was available with the department. He suggested that as the department had 800,000 bags of bardana/wheat bags, the wheat target be fixed at 800,000 bags.

The cabinet after deliberations and discussions decided to fix a target of 900,000 tonnes of wheat that would be procured for the crop season 2023-24 at a support price of Rs4,000 per 40kg.

The CM directed the food department to procure 100,000 bags/ bardana and mobilise the food department teams to start procurement of the wheat at the earliest.

Price control

Karachi Commissioner Saleem Rajput briefed the cabinet on the initiative taken to control prices of edible items, particularly during the holy month of Ramazan. He said the district administration was conducting raids to control prices of essential items.

He said that from March 6, 2024 onwards, the district administration conducted 1,500 raids, registered 1,150 cases, sealed 14 shops and recovered Rs7.14 million fine. The CM directed his cabinet members to start conducting surprise visits to the markets to control the prices of essential food products.

Law and order

The home minister, Lanjar, and Sindh Inspector General of Police Riffat Mukhtar told the cabinet said that from January 1 till March 12, 2024, some 274 murders, 84 cases of kidnapping for ransom and 30 cases of extortion were reported in the entire province, and the police registered 2,921 criminal cases against suspected criminals.

The cabinet was told that compared to last year, the street crime cases in Karachi had decreased by 4.18 per cent. To this, the CM said the crime rate varied from month to month, but the impact of its reduction had not been felt by the people of Karachi.

He directed the home minister to hold the SHOs and SSPs accountable for crimes in their respective areas. It may be noted that 7,822 cases of street crime were recorded in Karachi in January 2024, 5,876 in February and 2,234 cases in the first 12 days of March.

The cabinet was told that out of 78 cases of kidnappings, 49 abductees had been recovered and 29 were still to be recovered. Of those 29 kidnapping cases, six were from Ghotki, nine from Shikarpur and 14 from Kashmore.

It was pointed out that the kidnapping cases had increased due to tribal feuds. To this, the CM directed the home minister to involve a few provincial ministers, district administration and police to resolve tribal feuds as soon as possible. He added that the kidnapping of innocent people for ransom was unacceptable and strict action must be taken against the dacoits.

The CM was told that an operation against the drug mafia was in progress and most of the drug peddlers and addicts were involved in street crime. He directed the police to take strict action against the drug mafia and strengthen vigilance.

Red Line

Memon, senior minister for transport, said work on the Red Line project had been stopped which had not only caused serious problems to the people of the area but may cause escalation of the project’s price.

The CM directed the transport minister to speed up work on the project and remove the bottlenecks. He also directed Planning Minister Nasir to resume work on the approved developed schemes that was stopped due to the elections.