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Shortage of wheat to continue for two weeks
KARACHI, April 7: The Sindh Assembly was on
Wednesday informed that wheat was being supplied
to flour mills from old stocks of 680,000 bags
since June 2003. Provincial food minister Arif
Mustafa Jatoi told the house that the wheat being
supplied was the yield of the 1999-2000 crop.
He was responding to a question raised by Humera
Alwani, who wanted to know if it was true that at
least 900,000 wheat bags had been destroyed since
2000 in godowns in Karachi and in the interior of
Sindh. She also asked the minister why wheat was
in short supply in the province and what measures
were being taken to overcome the crisis.
Eight questions about the performance of the
finance, fisheries and food departments were on
Wednesday put to the government, which answered
only three queries. Mr Jatoi said that at least
680,000 wheat bags from the yield of the 1999-2000
crop had not been lifted by floor mills because of
the availability of wheat from Punjab in the open
market at a rate less than the government issue
price.
He said that the sudden stoppage of wheat supplies
from Punjab was responsible for the wheat shortage
in the province. He added that after the
discontinuation of wheat supply from Punjab the
floor mills became entirely dependent on the wheat
stock available with the Sindh government which
was not enough to meet the food requirements of
the whole province.
He recalled that the federal government had been
requested in Oct 2003 to immediately arrange for
300,000 tons of wheat. He added that the wheat had
been requisitioned in the same month and was
expected to be delivered in February 2004.
"However, the first shipment of 150,000 tons of
wheat was cancelled by the federal government in
March, thus seriously impairing our ability to
provide as much wheat to the people of the
province as required. The department did try to
procure wheat from other sources, but the quantity
obtained was not enough to meet the food
requirements of the province," he explained.
He feared that the wheat shortage would continue
for the next two weeks until the yield of the new
crop started to arrive in the market. Nasreen
Chandio wanted to know how much the government had
spent on the purchase, sale and stock of wheat
over the past three years. Her question was not
answered.
Hafiz Mohammad Naeem Shamozai wanted to know the
latest on the recruitment of 280 persons into the
fisheries department between Sept 15 and Sept 20.
He also wanted to know in how many newspapers the
posts had been advertised and how many applicants
had responded to the advertisements.
Ms Alwani asked the minister for fisheries whether
the Keenjhar Lake would be auctioned during
2003-04. She added that if the answer was yes,
what the procedure for the auction would be.
Fisheries minister Manzoor Panhwar said the
fishing rights of the Keenjhar Lake in the Thatta
district, as indeed those of all the public water
areas of the province, were auctioned every year
between May and June.
"This year nobody came forward to offer a
reasonable bid despite repeated auction attempts.
The lake has been put to departmental operation
under the Sindh Fisheries Rules 1983," he said.
Some of the unanswered questions were raised by
Fariha Razzaq Haroon, Mohammad Ayaz Soomro and
Assar Das D. Hemnani.
The DAWN |
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Pakissan.com; Advisory Point
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