Minister directs officers to address wheat farmers complaints

LAHORE:Punjab Senior and Food Minister Abdul Aleem Khan has directed senior officers of Food Department to reach South Punjab within 24 hours and check the complaints of wheat delivery and purchase in different districts especially in Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan, and take necessary steps on the spot to address the complaints.

Abdul Aleem Khan said that the district administration has a key role in the procurement of wheat and he will also visit districts of South Punjab in the next week to check the issues related to the purchase and delivery of wheat there. Chairing a video link meeting with the commissioners and deputy commissioners of Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Muzaffargarh, Layyah and Gujranwala,

Food Minister Abdul Aleem Khan said that the details of the procurement campaign of each district should be shared on a daily basis so that any obstacle could be removed immediately. He made it clear that there was no restriction on the inter-district transportation of wheat across Punjab. After fulfilling its target, Punjab will supply wheat to other provinces, he added.

Abdul Aleem Khan directed constitution of a special committee to review the problems of seed companies in different districts of South Punjab.

He welcomed the launch of wheat procurement campaign from different areas of Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan and hoped the target of 45 million metric tonnes of wheat procurement would be easily achieved while additional procurement of 0.5 million tone would be made for other provinces.

Earlier, the minister chaired a meeting at Chief Minister’s House on wheat procurement situation across the province in which the chief secretary was consulted to seal all the borders of Punjab province.

The senior minister made it clear that there would be regular written purchase agreements with other provinces and no private buyer would be allowed to get wheat from Punjab. He said Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar had directed that an integrated policy be devised for procurement of wheat so that there was no shortage of wheat or flour in the province. Punjab Food Secretary Waqas Ali Mahmood and other senior officers were also present in the meeting.