Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on the request of Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has restored subsidy on fertilizers. It may be mentioned that Shehbaz Sharif had requested Prime Minister to reinstate subsidy being given on fertilizers. The Prime Minister said that the interest and welfare of farmers is very dear to him. Restoration of subsidy on fertilizers will benefit two crore 20 lakh farmers of the province with 77 billion rupees and their production cost will be cut down to eight percent.
Meanwhile, in a statement, Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has said that PML-N government has taken unprecedented steps in the history of the country for economic uplift of cultivators and development of agriculture. He said that grandiloquence alone can’t address public issues, rather it needs practical steps and the whole nation is witness to the fact that negligence of so-called sympathiser of farmers in power sector is the reason of today’s deprived condition of our cultivators. He said that it does not behoove those to sympathize with farmers who closed their tube-wells through criminal negligence in electricity production. Shehbaz Sharif directed Agriculture Department to provide existing fertilizer in hoards at subsidised rates and keep an eye on hoarders and profiteers so thatsubsidy on fertilizers should be in reach of the cultivators. He warned that strict action will be taken against those trying to increase price of fertilizers in the province.