LAHORE - A meeting of various district coordinators chaired by Senior & Punjab Food Minister Abdul Aleem Khan has decided that monitoring of wheat and flour will be ensured in each district and immediate action will be taken to identify shortage, if anywhere.
Similarly, the District Coordinators will also bring complaints of hoarding and overcharging of their district and ensure supply of flour at fixed rates in each area to the people.
The minister directed the District Coordinators to form more committees at the town levels in their respective districts to take stock of the wheat and flour situation at tehsil level. Aleem told the meeting that new system of subsidy will be introduced in Punjab in which targeted subsidy would be provided and work had already been started in the Food Department in this regard.
The minister said that the Punjab government was spending billions of rupees on subsidies while huge sums of money were being spent on buying wheat from farmers and giving it to flour mills at low rates.
He said that 90-95 percent of the consumers were getting 20 kg bag of flour at fixed rates of Rs 860 in Punjab. However, Chakkies and fine flour were exempted from this which was used by only 5 percent of the masses.
He asked the District Coordinators to accelerate their activities and ensure effective monitoring of wheat and flour for the convenience of the people in their respective districts and play an active role in this regard.
In the meeting, Provincial Minister Mian Khalid Mahmood presented various suggestions regarding the working of coordinators at district and tehsil level. Apart from Parliamentary Secretary for Food Department Rai Zahoor Ahmed, District Coordinators from Lahore, Multan, Sialkot, Sheikhupura, Rahim Yar Khan, Narowal and 25 districts including Sargodha, Gujarat and Kasur attended the meeting and made recommendations to Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan on various issues.