Punjab purchases record quantity of wheat this year: Aleem Khan

LAHORE : Punjab Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan has said that provincial food department has purchased 36.40 lac metric tonnes of wheat in its procurement drive so far, ARY News reported on Sunday.

In a statement on social media Aleem Khan said that the government has fixed 4.5 million tonnes target for wheat procurement this year.

“It is a record as the wheat in such huge quantity not earlier purchased in the province’s history,” senior minister said.

The government will enhance the quota of flour mills after it will achieve the procurement target, Khan said.

A crackdown against the hoarders has made it easy for the government to achieve the procurement target, he added.

Provincial food department yesterday recovered a huge quantity of hoarded wheat in various districts of Punjab.

The department in its crackdown against wheat hoarders recovered 10,000 wheat bags from D.G. Khan, 3,000 from Bahawalnagar and 2,000 bags from Layyah, sources said.

Abdul Aleem Khan said that strict action was being taken against wheat hoarders.

He said that an all-out effort would be made to avoid wheat shortage in Punjab this year.