Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar chaired a meeting at civil secretariat on Monday to review rates and stock situation of sugar and flour in the province. Secretary Food briefed about the reserves and rates of sugar and flour in the province. The CM expressed the satisfaction that a 20-kg flour bag is available in abundance at the fixed price of Rs 860. Punjab is the only province where flour bags are provided to the people at a fixed rate, he added. He also expressed satisfaction over the arrangements made in this regard and the meeting decided to take every possible administrative step to further strict the monitoring for stopping the smuggling of flour from the province. The Punjab government is providing wheat to KPK province on a daily basis. It is also giving subsidies to the tune of billions of rupees to provide flour at fixed rates. The subsidy is the right of the poor while the provision of subsidized flour to the elite is the cruelty with the poor, he added. While directing to develop an effective mechanism for targeted flour subsidy, the chief minister asked the food department to provide a comprehensive plan in this regard. The Punjab government has released 6 lakh and 59 thousand ton wheat to the flour mills and it is providing more than 17 thousand ton wheat to flour mills every day, he said. This helps in stabilizing flour prices in the market, he added. Punjab has around 37 lakh ton wheat reserves. The CM also directed strict monitoring for stabilizing the price of flour and the meeting decided to take every possible step to stabilize the rates of sugar. The chief minister made it clear that an increase in the rates of sugar and flour will not be tolerated and directed the administrative officers to submit reports to him by reviewing prices after markets' visits. I will also review the field situation by going to different markets and no one can be allowed to exploit the people, concluded the CM. Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan, Chief Secretary, secretaries of industries and information departments and others attended the meeting.
