‘Wheat hoarders to be dealt with iron hand’

GUJRANWALA: Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Sohail Khawaja has said that an all-out effort would be made to meet the wheat procurement target in the district and the hoarders and profiteers would be dealt with an iron hand.

The government has decided to prohibit those not possessing the licence for buying the commodity till the wheat procurement target was achieved.

Food Department has been directed to establish procurement centres and all arrangements should be finalised before starting the wheat procurement campaign, said the DC while addressing a meeting in his office. He said that directions had been issued to the relevant departments to extend full cooperation to wheat growers.

He directed the officials concerned to prepare a comprehensive mechanism for wheat procurement, its storage and sale to flour mills. He said the departments should try their best to save the farmers from any difficulty in bringing their commodity to the procurement points and from getting gunny bags. He said steps had been taken to ensure prompt payment to the farmers.

Dozens of shops sealed: On the directions of Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Suhail Khawaja, a massive campaign has been started across the district to ward off the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic.

In this regard, the administrative officers have sealed dozens of shops and marriage halls and also imposed heavy fines on the violators of corona related SOPs.

Kamoke Assistant Commissioner Quratul Ain Zafar inspected various markets to ensure implementation on the lockdown. The AC sealed 17 shops for violation of the lockdown and a marriage hall on account of SOPs’ violations as indoor seating and dining was observed there. Wazirabad AC Amir Mehmood also visited the markets and bazaars to check the compliance of the lockdown on the weekend. He sealed four shops on violating COVID-19 SOPs. Noshera Virkan AC Rashid Iqbal sealed five shops. City AC Kamran Hussain and Sadr AC Saria Haider also inspected markets and shops in their respective tehsils. Most of the markets, shops, bazaars were closed.

commissioner: Newly-posted Gujranwala Division Commissioner Zulfiqar Ahmed Ghumman will assume the charge of his office today (Monday).

He has already served as the Gujranwala commissioner. Zulfiqar Ahmed Ghumman is considered to be one of the best administrative officers. He has firm commitment to speedy disposal of public complaints.

He has held the posts of Cooperatives Secretary, Director General Sports Punjab and many other senior management positions.

In recognition of his excellent services for Gujranwala during his previous posting, the Punjab government has again entrusted him with the charge of commissioner of one of the most important divisions of the province.

The public, social and journalist circles have welcomed the appointment of Zulfiqar Ahmed Ghuman as the commissioner and expressed hope that under his leadership, development in Gujranwala division would be at its best and public welfare schemes would be completed in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan. They have also expressed hope that the new commissioner would utilise all possible resources to materialise the priorities and targets set by Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar.