Independent Report
QUETTA: The Balochistan cabinet has accorded approval to purchase wheat in the province at government level.
The cabinet also approved fixation of the support price of wheat which would be equal to Sindh in the province.
The Cabinet gave approval in this regard during it’s second meeting held with the Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti in the chair here on Saturday.
Needless to mention here is that it was second meeting of the provincial cabinet on second consecutive day, Saturday.
All the provincial ministers and advisors to Chief Minister were present in the meeting.
Also in attendance were the Chief Secretary Shakeel Qadir Khan, Additional Chief Secretaries of planning and development and Home departments besides all administrative secretaries of the provincial government departments and other concerned high ups.
The Chief Minister constituted the monitoring committee for ensuring transparency in the purchase of wheat in the province. The committee would comprise members of the provincial assembly.
As far the decision of fixing the support price of wheat equal to Sindh, it was made in order to stop smuggling of wheat to Sindh from Balochistan.
The cabinet decided to purchase 500,000 metric tons of wheat through Food Department this year.
The cabinet also decided that the purchase of wheat would be made only at the authorized /approved centers. The purchase of wheat would be made on the basis of first come, first serve.
In addition to this, the cabinet decided to change the procedure of purchase of “bardana”(bags for wheat) for the first time in province’s history.
It decided to end purchase of “bardana” at the government level from next year.
The growers would be paid amount / money instead of bardana from next year, the cabinet decided further. The environment friendly bags would be purchased as per the requirement.
It was decided to distribute 58,000 bardana available with the Food department in transparent manner.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister regretfully pointed out that there happens to be corruption in the bardana which would be stopped anyway.
He on the occasion directed to Secretary Food to ensure availability of bardana in all wheat purchase centers of the province.
He also directed that the bardana would not go outside the purchase centers.
The Chief Minister stressed that the spot of corruption would have to be removed from the Food Department.
Moreover, other important matters were discussed and decisions made in the cabinet’s meeting.
Comments are closed.