590,890 wheat bags seized in drive against hoarding

The Sindh government’s food department, on the instructions of Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, has launched an operation against wheat hoarding throughout the province and has seized 590,890 bags of wheat.

A report presented to the CM in this regard on Thursday said 590,890 bags of wheat, each having 100kg of wheat, have been seized from different districts of five divisions of the province.

Sukkur Division: 101,220 bags were recovered from Khairpur, 69,770 bags from Ghotki, 75,650 bags from Sukkur. The bags recovered from the three districts totalled 246,640.

Shaheed Benazirabad: 28,000 bags were seized from Naushahro Feroze, 3,900 bags from Sanghar, and 14,980 bgas from Shaheed Benazirabad. The total bags recovered from Shaheed Benazirabad Division came to 46,880.

Larkana Division: In Jacobabad, 27,400 bags were seized, 50,000 bags from Kashmore, 22,065 bags from Shikarpur, 97,000 from Qambar-Shahdadkot and 31,600 from Larkana. The total bags numbered 228,065.

Hyderabad Division: In Dadu 1000 bags were seized, in Jamshoro 17,000 bags, in Hyderabad 30,000 bags, in Matiari 3,700 bags, in Tando Allahyar 600 bags, in Badin 10,922 bags and Thatta/Sujawal 1,138.50 bags. The total bags recovered from Hyderabad Division numbered to 68,305.50 bags.

Mirpurkhas Division: In Mirpurkhas 1,000 bags were seized. Sindh Food Secretary Raja Khurram Shahzad has been monitoring the anti-wheat hoarding drive in every district of the province.

Food Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla said that the hoarders/traders would be given a government rate of Rs5,500 for each 100kg bag for the seized quantity of wheat.

The operation would continue all over Sindh so that hoarded grain could be recovered to stabilise the wheat flour prices in the province.