Pakhtunkhwa government ready to buy wheat worth 29 billion rupees from farmers

Peshawar: Pakhtunkhwa government will start purchasing wheat worth 29 billion rupees from farmers from tomorrow.

Provincial Food Minister Zahir Shah Toro has said in his statement that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will start purchasing 3 lakh metric tons of wheat from May 7 at a cost of about 29 billion rupees. Wheat will be purchased from local farmers at Rs 3900 per 40 kg.

He said that committees have been formed at the district level to check the quality and quantity of wheat, which are district food controller, assistant food controller, district administration, agriculture, revenue department, representative members of flour mills association and NAB department and anti Corruption officials will be included as observers.

Zahir Shah Toro added in his statement that 22 godowns of the province have been set up as wheat procurement centers. Peshawar, DI Khan, Bannu, Malakand Dargai, Dir Lower, Hangu, Lucky Marwat, Mardan, Haripur, Mansehra, Kirk, Bitgram, Kohat, Abbottabad, Nowshera, Charsadda, Chitral Upper, Chitral Lower, Izakhel, Buner, Swabi. And Swat will have shopping centers where CCTV cameras have been installed to monitor the shopping process.

The provincial minister said that purchases will be made from the farmers on first come first serve basis. A procurement app has also been introduced in this regard, which will enable on-the-spot entry of all records online and payment to farmers through Bank of Khyber within 24 hours.

He said that for any complaint a complaint cell has also been set up on telephone number 091-9225379. All possible steps have been taken to ensure transparency in wheat procurement and prevent any kind of fraud. Exemplary punishment will be given for involvement in corruption.