Kisan Board announces protest over wheat support price demand

OKARA: The Kisan Board Pakistan has announced to stage protest outside the Punjab Assembly on Wednesday (tomorrow) for increased support prices of the wheat and sugarcane crops, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

President Kisan Board while announcing the protest said that thousands of farmers will gather in front of the provincial assembly for their demands. “The farmers protest will change into a sit-in in case their demands not given heed,” he warned.

The board’s president demanded the government to fix support prices of wheat and sugarcane at 2000 rupees and 300 rupees per 40 kilograms respectively.

It is pertinent to mention here that the provinces as well as the centre have differences over the support price of wheat.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet had recently fixed wheat support price at Rs 1600 for the next year’s crop.

Sindh cabinet in a meeting fixed the wheat support price in province at Rs 2,000 per 40 kilograms.

Punjab and Balochistan had recommended to the federal government to fix maximum wheat procurement support price at Rs1,700 per 40kg, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa proposed Rs1,880 per 40kg.

Punjab’s Food Minister Abdul Aleem Khan had criticized Sindh over the support price for wheat and termed it an ‘unwise’ decision.