KARACHI: Supply of flour at Rs16 a kilo promised : Sindh Cabinet meeting
By Habib Khan Ghori
KARACHI, Dec 11: While briefing the caretaker Sindh Cabinet on Tuesday, the food department stated that the wheat supply to Karachi flour mills would be increased from 1,980 metric tonnes to 2,942 metric tonnes per day to overcome the flour shortage, increase the availability of flour and reduce its price from Rs23 per kilogramme to Rs16 in the open market.
After the meeting, which was presided over by caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retd) Abdul Qadir Halepota, the provincial secretary information Faseehuddin Khan informed journalists of the decisions taken by the Cabinet in its first formal meeting.
Referring to the meeting’s agenda, he said that the three main points discussed were the formulation of a strategy to overcome the flour shortage, the law and order situation in terms of the coming elections and the shortage of anti-rabies/anti-venom injections and hepatitis vaccines.
Mr Khan said that after a briefing regarding the non-availability of medicines, the health department was asked to present a comprehensive report in the next meeting [scheduled for Dec 18] about the shortage of medicines in government hospitals.
The food department informed the Cabinet that during the past fortnight, the price of a 100-kg bag of wheat had increased by Rs300 due to the short supply of wheat in the open market. The shortage was due to various factors, including the fact that this is a lean period, smuggling, hoarding and transport problems in view of Eid-ul-Azha.
The department said that in order to overcome the crisis, it was increasing the quota of wheat release from government stocks of 0.354819 million from 30 per cent to 50 per cent to the flour mills. Additionally, the food department had asked the federal government to supply 0.3 million metric tonnes of wheat from its stocks, and this supply had been initiated.
The caretaker cabinet was also informed that the caretaker prime minister, Mohammedmian Soomro, also directed that stern action be taken to check the smuggling of wheat and flour to Afghanistan. In this regard, the food department had also suggested that the export duty of the commodity be increased from 35 per cent to 100 per cent to discourage smuggling to Afghanistan.
In reply to a question, Mr Khan said that 42 magistrates were being provided to the Karachi police force in order to facilitate severe action against wheat hoarders.
The Cabinet, he said, was optimistic that the measures outlined would result in reducing the price of flour to Rs16 per kilogramme within the next few days.
Shortage of security personnel
In terms of the coming elections, the home department briefed the Cabinet on the strategies being formulated to meet the emerging pre-election situation, for holding free and fair elections in a peaceful atmosphere, and maintaining law and order in the post-election scenario.
In view of Eid-ul-Azha, a contingency plan had been chalked out to avoid clashes over the collection of the skins of sacrificed animals.
Against 75 National Assembly (NA) seats (including 14 reserved for women) and 168 Provincial Assembly (PS) seats (including 29 reserved for women and 9 for minorities) in Sindh, there will be 14,000 polling stations in the province. In the last elections in 2002, there were 13,962 polling stations including 3,547 in the Karachi region, 5,088 in the Hyderabad region and 5,327 in the Sukkur region.
Replying to a question, Mr Khan said that according to an assessment, 4,659 polling stations were “sensitive”. He said that the polling stations were divided into three categories in terms of the deployment of security personnel who would ensure orderly polling. In the first category which is the most sensitive, he said, eight security personnel including four Rangers would be deployed. There would be six policemen at the less sensitive polling stations while only four would be present at the least sensitive.
Answering another question, Mr Khan said that Sindh’s overall requirement for election duty was over 80,000 security personnel while an additional 20,000 would be required for performing reserve duty, patrolling duty and safeguarding sensitive and government installations. There was a shortage of 50,000 security personnel, he said, and this would be met through the acquisition of the services of forest guards, excise police, the Janbaz Force, the Mujahid Force, the Mohafiz Battalion, civil defence volunteers and coast guards.
In this context, the Cabinet was reportedly informed that according to the comprehensive security plan being finalised, the IGP Sindh would be responsible for the law and order situation and would issue guidelines to CCPOs, DPOs, DIGs and TPOs in terms of monitoring police performance.
The provincial secretary information, Faseehuddin Khan, said that all DCOs had been asked to identify places and routes where public meetings could be held and campaign rallies could be held by political parties and their candidates. However, he pointed out, under the code of conduct, permission for such rallies had to be acquired 24 hours before the event and public meetings could be held only at the specified places and routes.
