LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has said that rights of sugarcane growers will be safeguarded and the sugar mills owners will be bound to make timely payments to growers.

An amount of Rs 240 million has been paid to sugarcane growers during last one week while more than Rs 175 billion have been disbursed to sugarcane farmers. "Farmers were exploited in the previous tenure; the powerful mafia made the sugarcane farmer hostage but the PTI government has protected the rights to the farmers," the CM said in a statement.

The CM maintained that in the next season, the farmers will reap the reward of their hard work. Farmers' rights have been protected in the past and will continue to do so in the future as well. No one will be allowed to exploit the farmers.

Moreover, the CM chaired a meeting of the Punjab Overseas Pakistanis Commission, in which in principle approval was accorded to establish Overseas Pakistanis Commission (OPC) in Southern Punjab.

The meeting also decided to open OPC desks in all Khidmat Marakaz in different districts of the province as this would solve the problems of Overseas Pakistanis at the grass root level. It also gave approval for the amendments in the OPC Act 2014 while the final approval of amendments in the Act will be given by the Punjab Cabinet.

The CM also directed speedy disposal of the pending cases of overseas Pakistanis. He said that overseas Pakistanis are our asset as their services for the strengthening of national economy cannot be ignored. The CM in his message on "World Tourism Day" said that a new tourism policy has been formulated by awarding tourism the status of an industry. "Promotion of tourism provides employment opportunities for local people and effective measures have been taken to improve tourist destinations by providing missing facilities for the tourists," he said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020