Pervaiz Elahi says there is no ban on wheat transportation

Staff Report

LAHORE: There was no ban on inter-provincial transportation of wheat and Punjab government was ready to supply wheat in stipulated quantity to other provinces to fulfil their requirements, Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said on Thursday.

Presiding over a meeting, the chief minister said 100, 000 tonnes of wheat was being supplied to Sindh during the current fiscal year and 25,000 tonnes had already been given to the Sindh government. The North West Frontier Province government had not lifted 100, 000 tonnes of wheat so far despite Punjab’s repeated requests. He said that the Punjab government had also announced 50,000 tonnes of wheat for Balochistan which said it did not need wheat.

The meeting which was attended by Punjab Food Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal, Punjab Chief Secretary Kamran Rasool and other senior officials, was told that over 6,500 tonnes of wheat flour was being provided daily to other provinces and they had lifted 800,000 million tonnes of wheat over the last four months.

The meeting was told that Punjab had helped the Pakistan Storage and Supply Corporation procure 200, 000 tonnes of wheat.

The meeting decided that 10,000 tonnes of wheat would be supplied to flour mills every day at Rs 390 per 40 kilogrammes from today. The meeting also decided that wheat supply to flour mills would begin to be sent 10 days before it began last year.

The chief minister stressed that the benefits of wheat subsidy should trickle down to the common man.

He directed the administration to try to maintain flour prices and give wheat quotas to only those flour mills which abided by rules and regulations.

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