The provincial cabinet held under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah here at CM House on Thursday took important decisions such as fixation of sugarcane price, appointment of 1500 subject specialists and approval of waste-to-energy policy.
The meeting was attended by provincial ministers, advisors to CM, special assistants, chief secretary Mumtaz Shah and other concerned officers.
Sugarcane price: CM Advisor on Agriculture Manzoor Wassan told the meeting that the government regulates the supply of sugarcane for use in factories and purchase price.
He added that in 2018-19, support price was fixed at Rs182 per 40 kg, in 2019-20 at Rs 192 and in 2020-19 at Rs 202. During all the said three seasons the crushing had started on November 30.
The cabinet was told that under the law the occupier of the sugar mill has to pay quality premium at the end of the crushing season.
The cabinet considered different factors, including consultation with the growers and the miller and approved to start crushing season by November 15.
The cabinet after thorough discussions and deliberations decided to fix the price of sugar cane at Rs250 per 40 kg and premium at Rs.0.50 per 40 kg.
The reason to increase the support price was the result of overall increase in prices of agricultural inputs.Wheat: Manzoor Wassan told the cabinet that the wheat price for the season 2018-19 and 2019-20 was fixed at Rs 13,000 and Rs1400 per 40 kg.
He added that the price in 2021-22 was fixed at 1800 per 40 kg by the federal government but the Sindh government in order to encourage more cultivation fixed the price at Rs 2000 per 40 kg.
The meeting was told that the cost of wheat production per acre for harvesting season, 2021-22 has been estimated at Rs 2000 per 40 kg on average yield of 34 maunds per acre.
The recovery from sale of bhoosa was estimated at Rs250 per 40 kg, therefore net cost of production would be Rs1750 per 40 kg.
The agriculture dept suggested to keep the same support price at Rs2000 per 40 kg.The chief minister directed the agriculture department to consult other provinces for fixation of wheat prices and then bring the proposal to the cabinet.
Subject Specialist recruitment: the Minister Education Syed Sardar Shah told the cabinet that the college education department was facing two types of acute shortages of teaching staff.
They include non- availability of teaching staff in particular subject in many colleges and General shortages in rural areas due to different reasons, the minister said and added they include `non filling of 20 percent seats through SPSC, reserved for direct induction in grades BPS-18, 19, 20, as per the recruitment rules; usual lengthy process of recruitment of / through SPSC, general tendency of transfer from rural to urban, near to home, administrative posts, deputations etc and general exit from service due to retirements, resignations, deaths etc.
According to the college education dept, there were 11311 sanctioned posts of lecturers from grade BS-17 to BS-20 against which 7699 are working and 2676 position are vacant, of them 20 percent or 914 are to be filled through direct induction and 3590 are clear vacancies and have to be filled to make the colleges functioning properly.
Sardar Shah, sharing the vacancy position, said that there were 65 vacancies of English teacher/lecturer, 90 Urdu, 40 chemistry, 36 physics, 70 Botany, 69 Zoology, 177 Pakistan studies and 134 Islamic studies.
Waste to energy policy: Minister Energy Imtiaz Shaikh presenting draft `Waste to energy policy said that Karachi, with a population of more than 20 million that specific production of waste was 0.59 kg/capita/day which meant total 10,000 – 11,000 tons of waste per day.
He added Karachi alone generated more than 10,000 tons of Garbage per Day, Hyderabad being second Largest City of Province generates 1000-1100 tons, Sukkur 400 tons and Larkana 325 tons.
Land to KE: The minister energy told the cabinet that the KE has requested for an allotment of 40 acre land in Deh Lal Bakhar, district Kiamari for establishment of a Grid station.
The cabinet constituted a committee comprising Imtiaz Shaikh, Nasir Shah, Saeed Ghani to examine the request and submit their report. The provincial cabinet directed the Board of Revenue to start e-stamping from December 2021.
