A high-level meeting was held under the chairmanship of Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Chief Secretary Jawad Rafique Malik here to review security arrangements during Muharramul Haram and prices of edible items including flour and sugar in the province.
During the meeting, Chief Minister Usman Buzdar directed the authorities concerned to bring stability in the prices of edibles. The chief minister directed them to take legal action against those involved in hiking the prices of essential commodities on their own.
Usman Buzdar directed the administrative officers and price control magistrates to ensure sale of essential commodities at the government rates.
He ordered the Police to provide foolproof security to all mourning gatherings ‘Majalis’ and mourning processions during Muharramul Haram while ensuring implementation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) related to Coronavirus.
The CM expressed satisfaction that a 20-kg flour bag is available in abundance at the fixed price of Rs860. Punjab is the only province where flour bags are provided to the people at a fixed rate, he added. He also expressed satisfaction over the arrangements made in this regard and the meeting decided to take every possible administrative step to further strict the monitoring for stopping the smuggling of flour from the province. The Punjab government is providing wheat to KPK province on a daily basis. It is also giving subsidies to the tune of billions of rupees to provide flour at fixed rates. The subsidy is the right of the poor while the provision of subsidized flour to the elite is the cruelty with the poor, he added.
While directing to develop an effective mechanism for targeted flour subsidy, the chief minister asked the food department to provide a comprehensive plan in this regard. The Punjab government has released 6 lakh and 59 thousand ton wheat to the flour mills and it is providing more than 17,000 ton wheat to flour mills every day, he said. This helps in stabilizing flour prices in the market, he added.
Punjab has around 3.7 million ton wheat reserves. The CM also directed strict monitoring for stabilizing the price of flour and the meeting decided to take every possible step to stabilize the rates of sugar.
Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan, Chief Secretary, secretaries of industries and information departments and others attended the meeting.
CM CONDOLES THE DEATH OF PIR TARIQ AHMED SHAH
Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar expressed a deep sense of sorrow and grief over the death of Pir Tariq Ahmed Shah, brother of federal interior minister Brig. (R) Ijaz Ahmed Shah. He extended sympathies to the bereaved family, as well as Brig. (R) Ijaz Shah, and prayed for the departed soul.
