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| May 15, 2003 | Thursday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1424 |
Dist govts to ban wheat movement
SIALKOT, May 14: The district governments of Sialkot and Narowal are likely to soon ban the inter-district movement of wheat.
Official sources told Dawn on Wednesday that the decision was taken after the trend of selling wheat by the growers to the millers and agents from the NWFP.
They pay the growers Rs305 to Rs310 per 40 kilograms instead of government’s fixed rate of Rs300. Moreover, they pay in cash. It prompted growers to sell their produce to them instead of food department and Passco centres.
Some growers told this scribe that some commission agents in the grain market have paid them ‘advance’ to sell their wheat to them.
Meanwhile, procurement centres of food department and Passco gave a deserted look on Wednesday as wheat growers rushed to open market to sell their produce on cash.
It is learnt that intelligence agencies, in their reports to high-ups, held food department officials responsible for the situation.
They claimed that Nazims, MPAs and MNAs forced the food officials to give gunny bags to their selected growers. The officials were forced to oblige them at the cost of poor farmers who have no links with high-ups.
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