Wheat procurement campaign reviewed

LAHORE: Cabinet committee for wheat procurement reviewed the ongoing wheat procurement campaign here on Monday.

Addressing the meeting held at Chief Minister’s Secretariat, Punjab Minister for Food Samiullah Ch said that on the directions of Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, action against hoarders will continue.

He said as a result of the initiatives taken by the government, confidence of the cultivators has restored. He said for the first time in the history of the country payments have been made to the farmers in cash. He said procurement of wheat on fixed rates is being ensured. The Punjab government will provide relief to the farmers at any cost. Chief Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar told the meeting that wheat procurement target is being successfully achieved. Positive results are being yielded due to daily monitoring of wheat procurement campaign and complaints are being redressed immediately.

Minister for Agriculture Malik Nauman Ahmed Langrial, administrative secretaries of food, finance, industry, agriculture and IG Punjab attended the meeting.

Flour millers: A delegation of flour mills association called on Punjab Chief Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar and informed him about their problems at Civil Secretariat here Monday. Speaking to the delegates, the chief secretary said that the government would resolve genuine problems of flour millers, however, it has to regulate prices of flour in the market as well. He asserted that wheat procurement target would be achieved in any case, adding that the flour mills can purchase wheat from market at the price fixed by the government.

He said that rights of farmers would be protected and purchase of wheat from farmers would be ensured at the price fixed by the government. He also directed the secretary food to set up a special cell at food department to address complaints of farmers and flour millers.

Separately, the chief secretary presided over a meeting to review security of Chinese people at Civil Secretariat. He ordered Inspector General of Police to provide foolproof security to Chinese people.

The meeting was attended by additional chief secretary Home, IG Police, secretaries of different departments, Chinese Counsel General, Additional IG Special Branch and officers concerned.

MoU: Virtual University (VU) and Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences (LUAWMS), Balochistan here on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for research and development, innovation and joint education.

The MoU envisages collaboration between the two institutions to share academic, research, and infrastructural resources. Apart from the capacity building and research, this linkage will provide options such as sharing of laboratories, for practical and research purposes, sharing of study materials and placements of students among both intuitions.

Trains stop: In order to facilitate the passengers, Pakistan Railways has allowed four passenger trains on route to and from Lahore Railway Station to observe a brief stopover at Lahore Cantt Railway Station till further orders. These trains include; Khyber Mail, Tezgam, Jaffar Express and Business Express.