Provision of sugar: 'government will tackle illegal profiteering with an iron hand'

Punjab Food Minister Malik Nadeem Kamran has said provision of sugar to the masses at reasonable rates is the priority of the Punjab government. The government will deal illegal profiteering with iron hands, he added. He stated this while presiding over a meeting regarding stability in the sugar prices, here on Wednesday.
Secretary Food Muhammad Irfan Elahi, Cane Commissioner Punjab Shahid Hussain and other concerned officers were also present on the occasion. The Minister said that prices of sugar are declining in the international market and there is a hope that arrival of Brazilian sugarcane crop will result in further reduction in the international market as well as in Pakistan.
Nadeem Kamran said that Punjab government is keeping an eye on the prices of the sugar. He said that stockiest and sugar dealers should provide sugar to the masses at reasonable rates otherwise strict action would be taken against them. Meanwhile Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) has urged the Chief Minister Punjab to ensure early payment to the sugarcane growers and free them from the clutches of sugar mills Mafia. In a separate press release issued here on Wednesday, KBP President Sardar Zafar Hussein Khan said that they would stage a sit-in in front of 7-club road if the dues of the growers were not cleared at the earliest.
He made this demand while meeting a delegation of the sugarcane growers, which called upon KBP President and claimed that sugar mills were not making timely payments to the growers. They claimed that a mill in Chunian was closed for the last some days and growers had to visit it again and again to demand their payments. But even then administration was hesitant to make payments to the tune of million of rupees.