Wheat procurement: ‘Gunny bags on first-come-first-served basis’

BAHAWALPUR:

Purchase of wheat for 2013-2014 in Rahim Yar Khan will begin from April 20, District Coordination Officer Nabeel Javed said on Sunday.

He was presiding over a meeting to discuss the arrangements for purchase of wheat.

Javed said a procurement target of 224 tonnes had been set. He said that gunny bags will be given to farmers on a first-come-first-served basis. A minimum of 10 and a maximum of 200 bags will be issued, he said.

“Gunny bags will be distributed at the wheat purchase centres after the calculation of land by the girdawar (revenue filed officer) of the area.”

Eight gunny bags would be given to farmers for one acre each of cropped land, he added.

The DCO directed the Food Department officials to supervise the distribution.



He also said that farmers would be paid for the wheat within five days of the purchase. The wheat purchase campaign, he said, would continue for 45 days.

He directed the tehsil assistant commissioners to arrange cold drinking water and shaded  sitting area for the farmers so that they would not face any difficulty at the purchase centres.

He said market committees would be responsible for the provision of these facilities.

He directed the officials to display phone numbers of the assistant commissioners concerned at every centre.

He also told them to maintain a complaint book at each of the centres so that farmers could register their complaints.

He warned of disciplinary action in case of negligence or favouritism in distribution of gunny bags.

District Food Controller Babar Khan said that Health Department officials would also be deployed at the centres.

He said the gunny bags’ distribution would be completed in time.

He said wheat would be purchased from farmers at Rs1,200 per 40 kilogramme. He said the distribution would be supervised by the DCO on district-level and assistant commissioners at tehsil-level.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2013.