Sindh government to offer 'good' wheat support price

The provincial Cabinet Tuesday decided to offer substantial support price for wheat besides purchasing 37 percent total [wheat] production from each and every district so that farmers could be supported, however, the support price would be announced once the federal government announces its revised price.

The cabinet meeting was held under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah at New Sindh Secretariat. Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, all cabinet members, advisors and concerned officers attended the meeting.

Federal Transfers: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah told the cabinet that during the current financial year the federal government has to transfer Rs 835 billion. The first seven months share comes to Rs 487 billion against which Sindh has received only Rs 359 billion showing a shortfall of Rs 128 billion. Wheat: The cabinet, just after approving the minutes of the last cabinet meeting, took up the agenda of wheat procurement plan. The chief minister said that the prices of wheat crop inputs have increased manifold, therefore the support price of wheat must be increased accordingly. He also suggested the cabinet that the government would procure 37 percent of the total wheat production of every district so that the benefit of the increased price could be passed on to all the growers in every district. However, he suggested that the support price would be announced once the federal government announced its revised support price. The cabinet after discussion the matter approved the proposal.

The cabinet was told that the price of a jute bag in the market was Rs 237 while the price of PP bag was at Rs 68, therefore the cabinet decided to procure 20 percent jute bags and 80 percent PP bags. The cabinet has already fixed procurement target at 1.4 MTs. The government had allocated Rs 38 billion for wheat procurement while the required funds were Rs 53.4 billion, therefore the cabinet approved another Rs 15.4 billion so that procurement could be made easily.

Posthumous promotion: The Sindh cabinet was told that Aijaz Hussain was an officer of grade BS-19 of the Prison department and he was killed by a proscribed organization in 2015. The son of Shaheed Aijaz has requested the chief minister to promote his father to the post of DIG Prison, Grade BS-20. The cabinet under Shaheed Recognition Act approved posthumous promotion of Shaheed Aijaz.

Medical bills: Discussing another item, the cabinet approved the proposal of the finance department to enhance the medical reimbursement bills amount to Rs 300,000 to Rs 3 million. The secretary of the concerned administrative department has been authorized to reimburse the bills of up to Rs 1 million on his/her own. The bills of above Rs 1 million up to Rs 2 million would be approved by the chief secretary while the bills above Rs 2 million would be sent to the chief minister for his approval.

Education: On the request of the school education department, the cabinet discussed purchase of the furniture for schools and directed the department that the purchase should be made school-specific and put the quantity of the furniture provided to a school on its website. This would enable the local people and department to look after the furniture accordingly. The school education department was given go ahead to purchase furniture and provide to those schools which had shortage or no furniture.

The cabinet also directed the education department to utilize repair and maintenance budget of the schools. The chief minister said that there were more 45000 schools in the province and their repair must continue through the year so that their buildings could be maintained properly. Stamp Act: The Board of Revenue proposed an amendment in Stamp Act, 1899 so that electronically generated stamps [e-stamps] and other documents could be given legal cover.

The chief minister said that the BOR has collected Rs 9.9 billion during last year, 2018-19 and this year, 2019-20 has been given a target of Rs 15 billion. He added that after introduction of the e-stamping the revenue must be increased manifold. "The electronically generated documents would have no need of signature but they would have a code bar which would be verified by scanning it. The cabinet approved the amendment and referred to the assembly for further action.

IGP: Sindh Chief Minister, taking the cabinet into confidence, said that he had offered Prime Minister Imran Khan that he was ready to brief the federal cabinet on the matter of Inspector General of Police but consolation with the Governor was not reasonable.

"The Prime Minister told me that the federal cabinet has reservation on the change of the IG Police, therefore the cabinet has left the matter between you [the chief minister] and the Governor to decide it with mutual consultation, the chief minister disclosed."

The chief minister said that told the prime minister that the matter has become controversial, therefore it would be unreasonable to drag the Governor into this matter. "However, I am ready to brief the federal cabinet, if the prime minister desired so."

He said that the prime minister has told him that the removal of the IGP has been agreed to remove the IGP but consensus on his replacement was yet to be agreed. The cabinet members said that the chief minister with their approval [cabinet] has already given seven names to federal cabinet, therefore one of them, as promised by the prime minister must be posted as new IG Police.