Chief Minister Punjab Chaudhry Parvez Elahi chaired a meeting regarding wheat at his office on Tuesday.
Flour Mills Association officials Muhammad Shafiq, Khaliq Ahmad, Sajid Abdullah, Wajid Abdullah, Muhammad Fayyaz and Zaheer were present along with former principal secretary GM Sikandar, secretary agriculture, secretary finance, secretary food, secretary (Imp) of CMO, director food, former BoP president Hamesh Khan and others.
The CM mentioned that a record reduction of 100 billion rupees has been made in the wheat procurement-related debt of the provincial government. This would help in the next wheat procurement drive. Subsidies will be given to the common man through Ehsaas Program so that all and sundry could benefit from it. The farmers will be able to make immediate payments through the Punjab government’s “Go Punjab App” and they will not face any problems.
The CM noted that the daily wheat quota has been increased to 23 thousand metric tons so that cheap flour is within the reach of everyone. Talking about the poultry industry, the chief minister said that the trial of the best seed has been started to overcome the soybean shortage; in one year, all the local requirements of soybean will be met from Punjab. A targeted subsidy was being given through Punjab Ehsaas Program to provide cheap-priced wheat to the people. The Punjab government has already ensured the supply of flour at cheap prices to deserving people through Ehsaas Program, he added. One can join the Ehsaas program through a CNIC card number to get a targeted subsidy on flour. He said that the subsidized bazaar was an excuse for looting by PML-N as people were not given real relief through targeted subsidies.
The CM directed that the administration should take all possible measures to ensure the availability of flour to the people at a fixed price. Strict monitoring should be done to prevent inter-provincial transportation of wheat and flour and police and administration should take action without discrimination to stop it.
