Maryam vows to protect farmers’ interests in Punjab

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has vowed that the PMLN government in Punjab will safeguard the interests of farmers and will not tolerate their exploitation.

“We will ensure the supply of fertiliser to farmers of Punjab at all costs,” she said while chairing a special meeting on Tuesday on the availability and need for fertilisers in the province. “Failure to prevent fertiliser hoarding and smuggling will not be tolerated at all.”

The chief minister directed the relevant authorities to implement effective measures to prevent the hoarding and illegal transportation of fertilizers. She emphasized the need to adopt foolproof procedures to ensure the availability of fertilisers to farmers.

Maryam also directed steps for effective digital monitoring of fertiliser supply from plant to dealer. She decided, in principle, to establish a special helpline for registration in the Kisan Card Programme.

Authorities briefed that the demand and production of urea fertiliser in Punjab was about 6.5 million metric tonnes, with about 70% of the country’s urea fertiliser production used for rabi and kharif crops in Punjab.

The meeting expressed satisfaction over the trend of reducing fertilisers rates. Recommendations for amendments to the Pesticide and Fertiliser Act were also considered.

Earlier, while meeting members of the Punjab Assembly from different districts, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz acknowledged past scams in wheat purchases but assured that farmers will now receive direct subsidies.

She directed assembly members to maintain close contact with the common man and indicated that food prices would continue to decrease. She mentioned the Punjab government is creating a separate system for price control and other issues.

“When the PMLN government came into power, prices started to decrease,” she claimed, adding that she has proposed to the federal government to reduce import duties on agricultural machinery and tractors. She informed the visiting parliamentarians about a loan proposal under consideration for building houses on two to four marla plots to help homeless people, with plot reviews in villages.

She also mentioned the introduction of hybrid buses in cities and motorcycles for the youth. Additionally, other countries, including China, are contacting Nawaz Sharif regarding the IT City initiative.

Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz in her message on Yaum-e-Takbeer congratulated the entire nation. “Salutations are due to every member of the team who carried out the great mission of defending the motherland.” She added: “I also salute Nawaz Sharif, who made Pakistan the first nuclear power in the Islamic world.”

She said, “The nuclear programme is a symbol of Pakistan’s strong defence. The Pakistani nation is grateful to Nawaz Sharif for his bold decisions. We made Pakistan a nuclear power for strong defence; now it is our mission to make it economically invincible too.”