230 wheat procurement centres set up
ISLAMABAD (APP): Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation has established about 230 wheat procurement centers across wheat growing areas in country in order to facilitate the grain producers to sell their produces at official fixed rates. The centers were established in order to initiate the wheat procurement campaign for the crop season 2018-19, besides facilitating the farmers, protecting them from the exploitation of middle men and providing them better prices of their produces, said Passco Managing Director Muhammad Khan Khichi. Talking to APP here on Wednesday he said that in this regard the whole country was divided into zones for enhancing the outreach of the corporation and facilitating the growers across the crop producing areas of provinces. The Passco would establish 230 procurement centers in these zones with close coordination of the allied departments of the provinces to make the campaign more effective and transparent, he added.
He said that Passco had divided the Punjab Province into 11 zones, where as it had established two zones in Sindh and one in Balochistan provinces respectively to encourage farmers to sell their produces at the nearest wheat procurement centers of the corporation.
The MD said that Passco would procure about 900,000 tons of wheat during current wheat procurement campaign, where as the food departments of the respective provinces would also procure the grains in order to fulfill the domestic requirements as well as for keeping the strategic reserves for the country.
The corporation would distribute about 9 million bags among the farmers and in this regard the Passco had devised a new mechanism and policy to maintain the transparency in the whole process of sack distribution and eliminated the involvement of local administration in the distribution process, he remarked.
Khan further informed that this year Passco had invited the applications from the farmers for sacks and a list would be prepared on basis of these applications and these lists would be open on given date and time.
There would be balloting on the basis of received application for ginny gags in presence of farmers, representatives of village organizations, district administration and other notables of these areas to address the complaints of farmers.
Irsa to store water in Tarbela, Mangla dams
ISLAMABAD (APP): The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) on Wednesday decided to start storing water in Tarbela and Mangla dams after meeting the provincial requirement to the extend of water allocated by Advisory Committee to the stakeholders. According to Irsa spokesman, the decision was taken keeping in view the increased water inflows in the rim stations. The water inflow has surged to 69,000 cusecs from 58,000 cusecs, he said. The authority also fixed outflow from Tarbela and Mangla as 18,000 cusecs and 16000 cusecs respectively. The share of Punjab and Sindh has also been increased from 26,000 cusecs to 29,000 cusecs and from 17,000 cusecs to 25,000 cusecs respectively with immediate effect, the spokesman said. However, he said the CJ and TP Canals would remain closed till further orders. Meanwhile, Irsa released 69,200 cusecs water from various rim stations with inflow of 69,200 cusecs. According to the data released by IRSA, water level in the Indus River at Tarbela Dam was 1,386 feet, which was 6 feet higher than its dead level of 1,380 feet.
Water inflow in the dam was recorded as 23,000 cusecs and outflow as 22,400 cusecs.
The water level in the Jhelum River at Mangla Dam was 1,050 feet, which was 10 feet higher than its dead level of 1,040 feet whereas the inflow and outflow of water was recorded as 18,500 cusecs and 19,100 cusecs respectively.
The release of water at Kalabagh, Taunsa and Sukkur was recorded as 33,800, 19,700 and 5,000 cusecs respectively.
Similarly from the Kabul River, 15,800 cusecs of water was released at Nowshera and 5,900 cusecs from the Chenab River at Marala.
Blue Fair to begin today
MULTAN (APP): A three-day industrial and trade exhibition titled 'Blue Fair' will begin on April 5 (Thursday) here. The event is being organised by the Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (WCCI) in cooperation with the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP). MNA Shaista Pervaiz Malik, Director General TDAP, and president First Women Bank Tahira Raza would attend the event as special guests, said Philza Mumtaz, the President of the WCCI Multan division. Representatives of WCCI from Gilgit-Baltistan to Karachi, designers of famous brands, women entrepreneurs and skilled women would showcase their products at 90 stalls in the event. The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority and other departments would also set up their desks. A wide range of products would be displayed at the three-day fair, including textiles, cosmetics, healthcare, handicrafts, blue pottery, furniture, gems and jewellery, food and beverages. Seminars would also be held as part of the exhibition for awareness and training of women entrepreneurs.
Tourism Performance Research launched
ISLAMABAD (APP): The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) have jointly launched the "UNWTO-WTCF City Tourism Performance Research." The research is an instrument with a set of criteria and a platform for exchange of information that could be used globally to benchmark tourism performance in urban destinations, said a press release here on Wednesday. Taking into account the fact that by 2050, 70% of the world's population is estimated to be living in cities and only by 2025, cities will contribute over 30 trillion US dollars to the world economy annually, it is essential to monitor the tourism performance in urban destinations and clearly address the areas for improvement with the aim of assisting the policy makers and all the other stakeholders in their efforts to take strategic action for urban tourism governance and management. The research is conducted by a group of experts who collected field data in order to have more in-depth understanding of each city involved in the initiative.
on the following: Destination Management, Economic Perspective, Social and Cultural Perspective, Environmental Perspective, Technology and New Business Models.
Although the City Tourism Performance Research is a way of qualitatively and quantitatively measuring the tourism performances of cities, the output in numbers is not the objective.