LAHORE, May 11: The Punjab government on Tuesday worked out a phased strategy for meeting its wheat procurement target. In the first phase, food department teams will start raids on the stocks of wheat hoarders from Thursday (tomorrow).

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting, presided over by Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi and attended by Chief Secretary Kamran Rasool, Food Minister Chaudhry Iqbal and Food Department Secretary Raja Shahid Hussein.

It decided that a judicial magistrate would accompany each team besides policemen during the raids. Food Department Secretary Raja Shahid said that all the hoarders were issued notices last week to either surrender 50 per cent of their stocks or face total confiscation.

They have yet to respond and now their all stocks will be taken over by the department, he said. All these hoarders will be paid according to the official support price, he said, adding "perhaps this will be the first and easiest phase of the strategy."

In the second phase, the department would go after the licensed stockists. "They are not governed by the Food Act but would be dealt under the Hoarding and Profiteering Act of the district government.

"The department would see as to what extend they have violated provisions of their licences and how much have they stocked. The department may fix a limit for the stockists and seize the quantity above it," Mr Raja said.

Licenced stockists would also not be allowed to hold the government hostage, he said. The third and final phase against the millers found hoarding wheat would only be initiated if the department's targets were not met, he said.

The millers have been allowed stocks equal to their 24-hour grinding capacity and quantity above it can be confiscated. "Details of this phase have not been worked out fully. But it will be certainly launched if the department could not meet its target in the first two phases," the secretary said.

As many as 1.3 million tons of wheat stocks have been declared by the licensed stockists and hoarders during the last two weeks in response to a directive of the department.

Of these, around 200,000 ton are with the hoarders, licenced stockists have around 350,000 ton while some 750,000 ton are with the millers. The department was optimistic that the launch of the crackdown would help it detect more illegally stored wheat, enabling it to achieve the food security target.

The meeting noted with satisfaction that the department had procured around 1.77 million tons of wheat till Monday against its total target of 3.5 million ton. It also noted that the Passco had also purchazed over 600,000 tons of wheat during the current campaign.

It directed the food department to re-double its efforts for meeting the remaining procurement target. Official sources said the department was optimistic about achieving the target on the basis of its calculations that around 30 per cent of wheat (around one million ton) was still going through the thrashing stage which would be procured by it.

Once the private sector was flushed out of procurement process, all wheat would land in the department lap. Up till now, only 2.3 million ton wheat has been procured by the government agencies and around one million ton by the private sector if the declarations are to be believed.