LAHORE: The Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) on Tuesday formally started its wheat procurement drive at Hafizabad district of central Punjab, and vow to quickly complete its two million tons target.

Passco Managing Director Maj-Gen Sohail Shafkat said a transparent system of procurement had been evolved to provide maximum benefit to the small growers. Special monitoring teams had also been constituted to immediately address any complaint of the growers with regard to selling their produce to the corporation, he added.

The MD claimed that 50 per cent of the procurement target would be achieved in first 15 days of the drive. He said the corporation had also reduced the price of gunny bag and now it would be given to the growers at Rs115 per bag instead of Rs120. This decision, he hoped, would provide relief to small growers.

He said token system had been introduced under the wheat procurement policy for the current year to ensure transparency, while revenue officers of the areas concerned would be consulted to discourage the middlemen in procurement.

Maj-Gen Shafkat further stated that gunny bags would be distributed whole week instead of three days to reduce the hardships being faced by the growers.

He said growers could contact him directly in case of any complaint.

The MD said objective behind issuance of only eight gunny bags per acre was to accommodate maximum growers. He said that 222 procurement centres of the corporation had been set up while all the arrangements with regard to procurement and payment to growers were complete.

He claimed that growers with less than 12 acres of land were being given preference in issuance of gunny bags.