Control rooms established for resolution of farmers’ complaints: Punjab food minister

LAHORE: Punjab Food Minister Samiullah Chaudhry said on Monday said control rooms had been established at every level across the province for resolution of complaints of farmers, ARY News reported.

“We have to make planters stronger and for this purpose we will have to create relaxation for them,” Samiullah Chaudhry said while addressing a press conference regarding Wheat Procurement Police 2019-20 in Lahore.  He was flanked by Punjab Agriculture Minister Noman Ahmed and Punjab Chief Minister Spokesperson Shahbaz Gill.

The food minister said subsidized price of wheat was fixed at Rs1300 per 40 kg.  He said 384 centres had been setup for buying wheat.

He said Rs9 will be given on returning an empty sack and provision of sacks will be started from April 22.

Read More: ECC allows export of 0.5 million tons of wheat

Samiullah Chaudhry said provincial secretary would supervise for making wheat purchasing transparent.

“The government will purchase more wheat this year,” he said.

In November 2018, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had given the go-ahead to export of 0.5 million tons of wheat. Finance Minister Asad Umar presided over a meeting of the ECC in the federal capital.

The ECC had discussed the proposal submitted by the Ministry of National Food Security & Research regarding export of surplus wheat/products as requested by the provincial governments of Punjab and Sindh and PASSCO.