LAHORE, March 22: Stern action will be taken against middlemen or government officials found exploiting or harassing growers during the wheat procurement drive beginning next month.

This was stated by Punjab Minister for Food Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal on Saturday. He was speaking at a seminar on marketing of wheat at Alhamra.

District governments, MNAs and MPAs would also be engaged to ensure that no farmer was harassed or exploited during the campaign.

Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi was to preside over the seminar but he could not do so because of pre-occupations.

Representatives of growers, middlemen and flour mills also gave suggestions for the better usage of wheat this year.

During the seminar, growers and middlemen traded accusations. The middlemen accused the government of creating problems for them. They said they were paying huge taxes to the government which in turn was destroying their business.

The growers accused the middlemen of exploiting and harassing them. They said the middlemen’s role should be eliminated as they had been robing them of their hard earned money.

The minister said the government was not eliminating the role of the middlemen but they would have to limit their activities.

The government would protect the growers who had brought about a revolution in Pakistan by making it from a wheat importing to exporting country in two years.

He said the foreign and national industry was facing a slump at the moment and if the local agriculture was not promoted the country would not have money for its imports.

The minister said senior revenue officers would be deputed to ensure trouble-free procurement and storage of wheat. The farmers would not be left at the mercy of the middlemen, he said.

Trading Corporation of Pakistan Chairman Masood Alam Rizvi said the government was encouraging private exporters and minimizing its role in the export of wheat to take advantage of the world market where the price of the commodity had increased from $ 105 per metric tons to $ 133 per metric tons.

He said last year the government had sold 1.6 million tons of wheat to other countries. Out of which 600,000 tons was exported by private parties. The country which imported wheat for 50 years had now been exporting it for the past two years, he said.

Mr Rizvi said one each wheat testing laboratory would soon be established in Karachi and Lahore.

Punjab chief minister’s adviser Jehangir Tarin said growers were now feeling at ease with regard to the disposal of their wheat. This was as against the past practice when police used to snatch their wheat, he said.

He said the quality of wheat should be improved and the government would provide all support to growers in this regard. The growers were giving bumper crops to the province because of the good reward ensured to them by the government, he said.

Mr Tarin said the State Bank must give liberal and soft loans to the growers so that they could not have nay problem in buying inputs. More purchasing centres should also be established for the facility of the growers, he said.

Food Secretary Sibghatullah Mansoor said the chief minister desired reduction of the role of the middlemen during the wheat procurement season. The government intended to procure every grain of wheat from the growers this season, he said.