LAHORE: The Punjab Food Department (PFD) inspected over 10,000 locations during last two days to ensure availability of Roti and Naan at the government-notified prices following decrease in flour prices.
Out of the total checked, 20 per cent were found involved in violation of the government notified prices while 80 per cent followed the directives. About 423 violations have been arrested and a collective fine of more than Rs6 million has been imposed on the violators.
Punjab Food Minister Bilal Yasin and Minister for Information and Culture Uzma Bukhari disclosed this at a joint press conference on Wednesday.
Answering the questions of journalists on this occasion, the Food Minister said that Roti and Naan are available at notified prices at 80% places in Punjab, for which the administration is working day and night. He said that before reducing the prices of roti and naan, the department of industry, agriculture and food worked out all the statistics and then notified the new rates.
The food minister further said that the sole objective of our government is to provide relief to the people and the government is committed to further reducing the price of roti as per the instructions of the Punjab Chief Minister.
He said that the wheat procurement drive will be on merit, and the government will give all possible relief to the farmers. The food minister said that the notified price of wheat is Rs3,900 per 40kg, for which the moisture content has been kept up to 10%. Punjab is fulfilling the wheat requirement of the whole country performing the role of elder brother. The government is bringing a historic package for farmers in the form of Kissan Card, which will reduce the cost of agricultural input and ultimately bring relief to every citizen as the price of crops decreases.
Punjab Minister of Information Uzma Bukhari said that intelligence is required even to copy somebody for, but our opponents lack that capability. They are copying every good initiative of the Punjab government while also criticizing it unnecessarily. She said that all the provinces copy the Chief Minister of Punjab.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024