Senior Advisor to Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa has said that the Punjab government has made all arrangements for purchasing last grain of the wheat from the farmers during the wheat procurement campaign. He stated this while presiding over a meeting of special committee constituted for ensuring protection of interests of the small farmers during wheat procurement, disclosed an official here on Friday.
Provincial Food Minister Malik Nadeem Kamran, Provincial Agriculture Minister Malik Ahmed Ali Olakh, Chief Secretary, Secretary Food, Secretary Finance and Secretary Information besides MPAs Asif Manzoor Mohal, Rana Ejaz Ahmed Noon, Haji Ghulam Jaafar Sargana, Rao Kashif Raheem Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed Khan attended the meeting.
Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa informed the participants that it is the top priority of the committee to ensue the interests of the small farmers during wheat procurement campaign. He directed concerned officers and officials to make foolproof arrangements for providing gunny bags to small farmers and action will be taken against the persons responsible for any negligence in this regard.
Provincial Food Minister Malik Nadeem Kamran said that food department has constituted monitoring committees at 360 procurement centres throughout the province. On the direction of the Punjab Chief Minister, Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, representatives of the farmers have also been included in these committees. He said food department has completed all arrangements at procurement centres for purchasing wheat, and honest officers and staff have been assigned this responsibility.
The meeting was told that Punjab is ready and making efforts for meeting the needs of wheat of World Food Programme and other provinces. Bumper wheat crop is expected in Punjab this year due to which not only the province but also the whole country would become self-sufficient in the food requirement this year.