45% wheat purchase target achieved: Aleem Khan

LAHORE :Punjab Senior and Food Minister Abdul Aleem Khan has said that the food sector in the province is being closely monitored and efforts are being made to ensure that there would be no wheat shortage.

The purchase target of wheat has been achieved up to 45 percent while the procurement drive is in full swing and Insha Allah we expect to achieve our target soon.

Participating National Command and Operational Centre meeting through a video link here Monday, Abdul Aleem Khan said that wheat crop and procurement in South Punjab would be more than our target; however, rains in Central and Upper Punjab have affected the wheat crop to some extent but Punjab as a whole has set a target of 4.5 million metric tonnes which will be easily achieved despite its seemingly large size.

Talking about the wheat supply to other provinces he said that efforts were being made to ensure that there were no two buyers in the market at the same time for the purchase of wheat. The Punjab government will buy the wheat as per their requirement and hand it over to other provinces especially Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), he added.

The Senior Minister said that strict measures were being taken against the smuggling of wheat in Punjab as there were many attempts which had been foiled with the help of intelligence agencies. He said he was monitoring the process himself and would need the co-operation of the motorway police to check the smuggling of wheat, he maintained.

He told the participants in the meeting that Punjab Flour Mills were allowed to have 72 hours stock which they could refill 24 hours in advance as well.

Keeping in view the past experience, Punjab has replicated an integrated policy of wheat which has been adopted for transportation, he stated.

He said there was no restriction on inter-district transportation of wheat in the province. Similarly people can buy wheat for their personal use. Aleem Khan presented a comparative review at the video link meeting with the National Command and Operational Centre and answered various questions.