Punjab Chief Minister, Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, has said that he has written a letter to the Federal government to fix the price of rice and cotton at Rs 1,500 per maund. He disclosed this while addressing a meeting here on Thursday regarding increase in agriculture production and purchase of the commodities from farmers at a reasonable rate, disclosed an official.
According to officials the CM said that the cultivators should be ensured due return for their labour, which would encourage the cultivators that greatly help boost agricultural production. He further directed to stabilise the prices of cotton and rice and also urged Passco and Cotton Trading Corporation (CTC) to purchase the commodities from the farmers so that they could not face any difficulty in this regard.
Highlighting the measures taken by the government he said that tractors and agri inputs are being provided to the cultivators at subsidised rates as well as supply of quality seeds is also being ensured, moreover, a taskforce has been constituted for checking adulteration of pesticides.
Furthermore, he said that use of modern technology for increasing agriculture production is the need of the hour and agreements have also been signed with China in this regard during the recent visit. He stressed that the present financial crisis could also be countered by achieving self-sufficiency in agriculture sector and agriculture department should provide complete guidance to the cultivators for increasing per acre yield.
Dr Iftikhar Waris informed the meeting about chemical free pesticides for wheat and said that per acre yield of wheat can be increased by 2.5 maund by utilising these medicines. The chief minister directed to test the medicines of Dr Iftikhar Waris jointly at the government as well as private farms and if the experiments prove successful these medicines should be introduced in the province.
Meanwhile, during his visit to Chak 45 of Sargodha, the CM took strict notice of water supply scheme there, which has been completed four times on papers and directed Director General Anti-Corruption to complete an inquiry within 48 hours and arrest the responsible persons. However, he was informed that the water supply scheme was completed in 1982, 1995, 2001 and 2006 on papers but no practical work had even been started.
The CM expressed his extreme indignation over this incident and described it a blatant example of loot and plunder. He added, "The PML-N government would spare no effort for taking such plunderers to task." He directed the Secretary Housing to trace all such schemes in the province and submit him a complete report within 15 days.
Taking the notice of deteriorated condition of roads in Chak 45 and 46 he said that Punjab government has started development schemes in all districts and third party audit system has been adopted to ensure complete transparency in the implementation of the projects. The roads that were in poor condition would also be repaired on priority basis. He said that no delay in the implementation of public-welfare oriented projects will be tolerated.
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