LAHORE: Minister Local Government Punjab Mian Mahmood-ur-Rashid on Wednesday said that government will unveil new master plan of Lahore till December 31.

He said this while responding to the adjournment motion in Punjab Assembly. He said that the population of increased many times during the last many decades but no government in the past focused on making the new master plan of Lahore. He also said that the PTI government is taking action against the illegal housing schemes in the province.

Agriculture minister Punjab Syed Hussain Jahania Gardezi said that the government had spent Rs 11 billion on research on agriculture from 2018 to 2021.

He also said that due to the issuance of the Kissan Card corruption has stopped. Kissan card has been distributed among more than 6 lac farmers. In the tenure of this government, there is record production of rice. The government has given subsidies to cotton farmers due to which the cotton production increased in the country. We have produced 19 new varieties of cotton.

PML (N) MPA Chaudhry Iqbal said that the minister is not presenting the real picture of the agriculture sector of the province. The reality is that the government had done nothing to stop the increasing prices of fertilizers.

PPP MPA Ali Haider Gilani said that despite giving a subsidy on sugar we are importing it from abroad.

The Punjab Assembly passed a resolution calling steps for the promotion of hockey in the province. The resolution was presented by PTI MPA Uzma Kardar.

It is pertinent to mention here that despite the ruling of the deputy speaker many ministers were absent from the House during the session.

Earlier, Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat while talking to media in the Punjab Assembly said that the date of local bodies elections in Punjab had not been decided so far and the Punjab government had to take this decision in consultation with the Election Commission of Pakistan. Replying a question on Maryam Nawaz’s comments suggesting PTI leaders to wear helmets, the minister said, “We are political people and we know what to do in politics,” Raja Basharat said that there was inflation but the Punjab Government was taking steps to control it. Later in the Punjab Assembly session answering questions related to the food department.

He said that the minimum price of sugarcane in the province was determined in consultation with the Punjab Sugar Cane Control Board. He said that Rs. 1.5 per 40 kilograms of sugar cess was collected each from landlords and mill owners from sugar mills which from August 2018 to July 2021 received more than Rs 4.54 billion. The law minister said that sugar cess was spent on construction and repair of broken roads in the respective area.

“From the year 2018 till now, Rs. 1.21 billion of sugar cess has been given to the districts for development works.” He further informed the House that last year the distribution of bardana for procurement of wheat was kept open and bardana was provided to every landlord as per demand.

He said that effective measures were being taken to protect the wheat lying in the warehouses. Raja Basharat said that 214 officers were working in Lahore under Punjab Food Authority and 21 government vehicles were being used in field operations.

According to the policy, each registered mill is provided 300 kg of wheat daily at a rate fixed by the Punjab Cabinet while the price of flour was fixed by the Deputy Commissioner in consultation with the chakki owners,” he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021

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