A meeting of various district coordinators chaired by Punjab Senior and Food Minister Abdul Aleem Khan has decided that monitoring of wheat and flour will be ensured in each district and immediate action will be taken to identify shortage, if anywhere.
Similarly, the District Coordinators will also bring complaints of hoarding and overcharging of their district and ensure supply of flour at fixed rates in each area to the citizens.
Food Minister Abdul Aleem Khan directed the District Coordinators to form more committees at the town level in their respective districts to take stock of the wheat and flour situation at tehsil level. He said that a mechanism was set up for the release of Government wheat in Punjab in consultation with flour mills and now deliberations are also being held on sugar regulatory policy.
Abdul Aleem Khan said the meeting that new system of subsidy will be introduced in Punjab in which targeted subsidy will be provided and work has already been started in the Food Department in this regard.
The senior minister said that the Punjab government was spending billions of rupees on subsidies while huge sums of money were being spent on buying wheat from farmers and giving it to flour mills at low rates.
He said that 90-95% of the consumers are getting 20 kg bag of flour at fixed rates of Rs. 860 in Punjab. However, Chakkies and fine flour are exempted from this which is used by only 5% of the masses.
He asked the District Coordinators to accelerate their activities and ensure effective monitoring of wheat and flour for the convenience of the citizens in their respective districts and play an active role in this regard.
In the meeting, Provincial Minister Mian Khalid Mahmood presented various suggestions regarding the working of coordinators at district and tehsil level. Apart from Parliamentary Secretary for Food Department Rai Zahoor Ahmed, District Coordinators from Lahore, Multan, Sialkot, Sheikhupura, Rahim Yar Khan, Narowal and 25 districts including Sargodha, Gujarat and Kasur attended the meeting and made recommendations to the senior minister on various issues.
The meeting also decided to liaise among all the participants and form a whatsapp group also.
