A bumper wheat crop of 4 million tonnes this season has turned into a liability for the Sindh government that lacks not only funds to procure the targeted 1.5 million tonnes of wheat, but also the capacity to store the perishable commodity.
Upset over unrealistic orders of the "Sarkaar", Provincial Food Minister Nadir Khan Magsi is concerned about the fate of those thousands of growers who would find no buyer for at least 2.5 million tones of their production in the wake of government's decision to procure only 1.5 million tonnes. "I would buy wheat only from the grower and not from the middleman or Punjab. I would not succumb to the pressure being exerted by the middlemen," Magsi told media outside the Sindh Assembly on Monday.
A financial crunch is said to have rendered the provincial government unable to procure the targeted 1.5 million tonnes of wheat for which, the provincial food minister believes, his department needed a credit facility of billions of rupees. "We would need Rs 30 billion plus from the commercial banks for procurement," Magsi toldBusiness Recorder.
Still unable to sell out its last season's 'costly' wheat stocks, the food department has not been able to clear at least Rs 11 billion it had borrowed from the commercial banks for the previous procurements. "We still owe around 11 billion rupees to the banks that would be paid after encashment of 0.25 million tonnes of wheat stocks," he added.
Among others, the Sindh government appears equally responsible for making the department a defaulter. "Within next couple of days I would meet the chief minister and ask him to release the Ramadan Package subsidy," the minister told this reporter. Earlier, Magsi told journalists that the government's godowns were already housing 0.25 million tonnes of last season's wheat and had no capacity to store one million tones of the procurable commodity.
"Real problem is the storage we, as an emergency measure, would opt for the construction of plinths to accommodate the excess wheat which would perish if it rains," he expressed the concern. The issue is also said to have dominated PPP's pre-session parliamentary meeting at Sindh Assembly. According to sources, the committee formed various sub committees on the divisional basis to look into some complaints about the distribution of "bardana" (gunnysacks) in the province.
CONDOLENCE SITTING Monday marked one of the shortest sessions of the Sindh Assembly as the provincial legislature mourned the demise of an MQM lawmaker. As soon as Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro brought the house to order after a routine two-hour delay at around 11:45am Law Minister Ayaz Soomro requested the chair to adjourn the house in honour of late Dr Partab Singh, an MQM legislator from district Tharparkar.
The chair called it a day at around 12pm after the house observed two-minute silence for the departed soul. All agenda items for the day, which ranged from the consideration of government's amendment bill on building control to the extension of dates for the presentation of reports of different standing committees, were deferred till next sitting.
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