KARACHI: The Sindh govt has chosen to impose a ban on interprovincial action of wheat in anticipation of the grain’s shortage and resultant cost hike of flour in the province. Sindh Minister for Food Hari Ram Kishori Lal declared on Monday that the option was taken over apprehensions expressed by Pakistan Flour Mills Association South Zone about the depletion of wheat stocks in Sindh and its proposal for banning wheat buy by feed mills. “In order to quit move of wheat stocks from Sindh to other provinces, the home division as well as commissioners and district administrations have been instructed to ensure restriction on movement of wheat from Sindh,” declared the minister.
Mr. Lal mentioned that present wheat crop in Punjab had suffered widespread problems in rains, which frustrated the provincial government’s plans to achieve its procurement focus on the grain. Besides, he declared, there were records that 10, 000 metric tonnes of wheat was being transported from Sindh to Punjab daily, hence the Sindh govt decided to reject its interprovincial action. The Punjab govt, too, had banned movement of wheat to quit its transportation from Punjab to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan, he declared.
Meanwhile , Sindh Abadgar Board member Gada Hussain Mahesar declared in a statement that a bumper crop was being expected to yield 6 .2 million tonnes of wheat during the present period but surprisingly the Sindh govt had neither publicized a procurement policy nor fixed official rate of the grain as yet while the process of threshing had previously picked up momentum . He appealed to the govt to lift the ban on interprovincial movement of wheat and declared that if the govt could not afford to open procurement centers it should allow the grain’s movement to save growers from further financial losses.
He declared that growers , under the obtaining conditions , were forced to dispose of their create to nearby dealers at much lower rates ranging from Rs1 ,050 to 1 ,120 per 40 kilogramme while the official procurement price in Punjab was Rs1, 350 per 40kg and the Punjab govt had opened procurement centres across the province to buy wheat . He pointed out that growers, who had invested their hard-earned cash in the cultivation of the crop in the hope of having an excellent harvest should not be deprived of the legitimate benefit.