Businessmen assure COAS maximum support for flood-hit people

Ample food reserves in country: NFRCC.

RAWALPINDI    -   Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa Friday visited flood affected areas of Sindh’s Badin district. COAS spent time with flood affected people in relief and medical camps and also met Army troops busy in rescue and relief activities in Malkani Sharif, district Badin. Later, COAS was flown for aerial reconnaissance of flood affected areas of Badin and surroundings. According to a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), COAS also had interaction with business community at Karachi. During the interaction, COAS said that the business community has always helped people of Pakistan during various natural calamities including their support in recent floods. The business community members acknowledged the role and sacrifice made by the Pakistan Army in providing safe environment for the country’s economic prosperity and assured COAS maximum support for the flood affected people. The National Flood Response Coordination Centre (NFRCC) said on Friday that a ‘huge stock’ of wheat for the next six months is available along with a strategic reserve of two million tons which will be sufficient till the next harvesting season. It said there was ‘no shortage of food items in the country’. The statement came yesterday amid escalation in food insecurity fears following the floods nationwide that have devastated agricultural crops. The NFRCC in the latest update stated that other than two million tons of strategic reserves, an import of additional stock of 1.8m tons is in progress out of which 0.6m tons have reached. The NFRCC said 46,000 tons of wheat from the public sector was being released on a daily basis. The centre also gave a breakdown of certain crops and food stock. It said that bumper tomato crops were harvested last year, which were more than sufficient to fulfil the country’s requirements.

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