Rs100b saved in Orange Line project

LAHORE
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Saturday while presiding over a cabinet meeting gave conditional approval to Women Protection Bill 2015 whereas the draft of Punjab Labour Policy was also approved.
It was also revealed during the meeting that through successful negotiations with Chinese companies, Rs 100 billion had been saved in Lahore Orange Line Metro Train Project.
The meeting decided that all provincial ministers, advisers, special assistants, chief secretary, IGP, secretaries, commissioners, DCOs, RPOs and DPOs will adopt one government school each.
On the other hand, the chief minister formally inaugurated wheat harvesting campaign, 2015, at village Warah Malik Shah Muhammad Awan near Lahore by cutting the crop by a sickle and harvesting the wheat by driving a harvester.
Addressing a gathering, he congratulated the farmers on producing a bumper crop and announced to provide 10,000 tractors on reduced price to small farmers. He said the Punjab government would give a subsidy of Rs 200,000 per tractor to and a farmer-friendly programme was to be launched from the next financial year. The chief minister said the subsidised tractors would be given to the farmers having 12.5 acre of land, adding that the scheme had been launched again to benefit the farmers.
Shahbaz said the PML-N government was fully aware of the problems of farmers and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had taken various steps for address those issues.
He said the government wanted that the growers should get due return of their hard work as, instead of profit, they had to face loss in some crops.
“That is why our government, in the farmers’ interest, fixed the sugarcane price at Rs 180 per 40kg whereas, in Sindh, the rate was reduced from Rs 182 to Rs 155 per 40kg.”
The chief minister said the farmers also benefited from the reduction in prices of petroleum products and electricity. He said the Punjab government had fixed the wheat procurement target of four million tonne with a price of Rs 1,300 per 40 kg.
He said wheat would be purchased from farmers transparently and clear cut instructions had been issued to the Food Department for the purpose, adding that wheat would be procured from small farmers first. The chief minister said he would personally monitor the procurement campaign with no injustice to be allowed.
Shahbaz said if anyone tried to benefit middleman during wheat procurement campaign then strict action would be taken against him. He said 376 wheat procurement centres had been set up in the province to facilitate the farmers.
Meanwhile, the participants of the cabinet meeting, which continued for five hours to discuss a nine-point agenda, were served with one dish - daal chawal.