Supply, distribution of subsidised flour begins

PESHAWAR: Adviser to the Chief Minister on Food Mian Khaliqur Rehman on Thursday said that in order to provide relief to the people, supply and distribution of subsidised flour has started at union council and village council level.

“The price of sugar has come down from Rs107 to Rs87,” the adviser told reporters here.

He said that for the first time, a policy had been formulated for crushing wheat in which 15 percent fine flour and 73 percent normal flour have been allowed. “The purpose of the policy is to further improve the quality of flour,” he said, adding the Food Department had adopted a zero tolerance policy against corruption and incompetence and strict monitoring procedures have been formulated.

So far, he said, action had been taken against 28 officers under E&D rules and punishments have been given accordingly.

He said that in order to meet the needs of the province and to secure maximum wheat, the Food Department has set up permanent food/grain warehouses and increased the storage capacity of food to 425,000 tonnes, which includes warehouses under construction for 22000 tonnes of wheat.

During the current financial year, he said, the Food Department was implementing a survey / feasibility study to locate more storage units across the province, while 2 schemes of Accelerated Implementation program(AIPs) are being set up to build 65,000 tonnes in the newly merged tribal districts.

“The Food Department has a total of 13 Annual Development Programmes and AIP schemes for which Rs 606 million has been allocated,” he added.

The adviser said that the Food Department had procured 603,000 metric tonnes of wheat in 2018-19 and 1,069,890 metric tonnes in 2019-20, procurement includes local procurement, procurement from PASCO and procurement of imported wheat.

He said that 610,427 metric tonnes of wheat had been lifted out in the year 2019-20. He said that 650,000 metric tonnes of wheat was supplied in 2018-19 while 403,767 metric tonnes of wheat was supplied in 2019-20.

Khaliq-ur-Rehman said that 4.55 billion annual subsidy was provided in the year 2018-19 while 3.567 billion subsidy was given in the year 2019-20.