LAHORE, April 22: The ban on the wheat movement in 18 districts of the Punjab is yet to make any difference to the procurement pattern if the food department's figure of Thursday is something to go by.
The department managed to procure only 62,000 tons of wheat on Wednesday, taking the total to 435,000 tons till Thursday. The department's officials said rain in the central Punjab in the last two days had affected the purchase process.
"Rain increases moisture content in crop and the department's staff naturally avoids buying the wheat," they said, hoping that the drive would pick up steam in the next few days.
A Punjab government spokesman said here on Thursday there was no ban on inter-provincial movement of wheat and traders and millers from other provinces were procuring wheat from the Punjab.
The province had taken some administrative steps to meet the food security target of 3.5 million tons set by the federal government, he added. The inter-district ban would continue for few days after which the traders from other provinces would be free to lift the purchased wheat.
Meanwhile, Provincial Food Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal said the criticism on inter-district ban by the NWFP food minister was unjustified. In a statement, he said the Punjab had always cooperated with other provinces in meeting food requirements. The ban had been ordered to get to the food security target and discouraging hoarders and stockists, which was not against any other province.
