Quality wheat being procured, says official

MARDAN: An official said here on Monday that good quality wheat was being purchased during the ongoing process.

Talking to the media, District Food Controller Waseem Kamal said the representatives of the Food Department, Halal Food Authority, Agriculture, district administration and flourmills association were involved in the procurement process of wheat. He added officials from anti-corruption and other agencies were also overseeing the process.

Waseem Kamal said the process of purchasing wheat was being carried out under the supervision of deputy commissioner to ensure transparency. He the purchase was being made from the suppliers and farmers at the rate Rs3900 per 40kg.

He said the quality wheat was checked by machine. He said earlier the provincial government used to buy wheat directly from Punjab or the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation on which the transportation cost was to be paid while the quality of wheat could not be checked.

He said the government would save about Rs11 billion in terms of transportation charges. He said that quality wheat would be provided to the flourmills. The official said that under this procedure, about 155,000 sacks of wheat weighing about 5.15 metric tons had been procured so far. He added that our target was to purchase 300,000 sacks of wheat. He said that this process of purchasing wheat would help provide cheap and quality flour to the people.