Other provinces should also introduce 'Sasti Roti' scheme: National Assembly panel says....

The National Assembly's Standing Committee on Inter Provincial Coordination on Saturday observed that the Punjab government's 'Sasti Roti' initiative should also be taken by other three provinces as well. The committee met here with Sheikh Waqas Akram in the chair and discussed the issue of 'Sasti Roti' at length, besides discussing the new National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, performance of Utility Stores Co-operation of Pakistan, overall availability of wheat and some water-related issues.
The committee was informed that so far in Punjab the provincial government has established 14715 Sasta-Tandoors and was providing 64369 bags of 20-Kg flour on daily basis to these outlets. Nawab Yousuf Talpur of PPP showed grave concern over the Punjab government's decision of providing Rs 7.5 billion as subsidy to these Sasta Tandoors.
He, however, said that the amount of Rs 7.5 billion allocated for the purpose should not be utilised for subsidies instead it should be utilised for development projects which would create new jobs for the masses and reduce poverty. Secretary Inter Provincial Co-ordination gave detailed briefing on the functions of the ministry.
Regarding composition of the Council of Common Interest (CCI), it was noted that there was no due representation of all the provinces. The committee recommended that the Minister of Inter Provincial Co-ordination should be included in the CCI for contribution among the provinces. The committee said the Secretariat of the CCI and the National Executive Council (NEC) should be transferred to the Ministry of Inter Provincial Co-ordination.
The committee summoned the FBR chairman to give full details about revenue collected from regions, directorates and provinces with regard to provincial share in the divisible pool, taxes and other matters in the next meeting. The committee called for referring the issue of water dispute between Sindh and Punjab to the CCI.
Donya Aziz of PML-Q while hailing the 'Sasti Roti' scheme said such Tandoors should also be started in other provinces. Shahzad Pervez Butt DG Sasti Roti Authority Punjab giving the achievements of the scheme said till date the government has provided 18,183,242 bags of flour to Sasta Tandoors.
He said that so far the government has established 14,175 Tandoors but it wants to establish 20,000 Tandoors across the province. To a query, he said these Tandoors are basically established for providing relief to poor masses, hence most of them were established in areas where poor people are residing or the people from other parts of the country are residing for work.
He added that political interference in the project must not be allowed. The committee expressed concern over the introduction of Mechanical Tandoors Scheme adding that it should not affect negatively the income of local Tandoors. Regarding wheat position, the committee directed the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to devise a transparent mechanism for import, storage, distribution and determination of wheat prices.
The committee called for bringing complete break-up of wheat stock since 1947 before the committee in the next meeting. "We were keen to know why this special concession of cheap Roti is in the Punjab only, while other three provinces are being deprived of it," Sheikh Waqas Akram remarked.
The committee was informed that Sindh and NWFP say that due to financial crunch they are not in a position to provide 'Sasti Roti' to masses. On this point, Syed Nisar Ali Shah PPP MNA said the scheme was significantly proving beneficial for the poor people and the Punjab government has only allocated Rs 7.5 billion for this scheme.
Nisar was of the view that as per population Punjab was the biggest province and during last six months it had spent only Rs 2.55 billion on 'Sasti Roti' project, adding that other three provinces' combined population is less than Punjab's so they will have to allocate fewer amounts for providing Sasti Roti to poor masses.
Utility Stores Corporation (USC) Managing Director Muhammad Arif informed the meeting that the government did not pay Rs 7.5 billion subsidy to the USC so far. He said there is shortage of sugar in eight districts including Jhang, Layyia, Khanewal, Sahiwal, Loralai, Kohat and others. He said the USC has already requested the Commerce Ministry to provide 100,000 tons sugar to the USC outlets.
He added that this sugar would be provided to 50 million people for a month. USC Managing Director also informed the meeting that 100,000 sugar packets per day are being prepared. He said the government should keep difference of Rs 10 per kg sugar as compared to market prices. "If the price differential is big, long queues of people will remain at the USC outlets," he added.
He said the USC has paid Rs 205 billion tax besides providing 3,000 jobs to people. He added that there are 5,000 government and 7,000 franchise stores across the country. The Secretary of Food and Agriculture told the meeting that the Punjab government has to keep 2.5 million tons as strategic reserves of wheat.
The meeting was informed that according to the Constitution of Pakistan, no province can impose any restriction on free movement of wheat and inter-provincial trade shall be free throughout Pakistan. About stopping smuggling of wheat to Afghanistan, the members of the committee suggested that the government should allow export of wheat to Afghanistan.