Sindh govt may not release wheat by 15th: governor

KARACHI: Sindh Governor Imran Ismail has expressed his apprehension that the Sindh government wouldn’t fulfill its commitment to release wheat in the province by October 15 this year.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, the Sindh governor said the provincial government would not release wheat to the flour mills before November.

It is worth mentioning here that the Sindh cabinet in its meeting held on October 5 had decided to release wheat from October 15 at the rate of Rs1,950 per 40 kilograms.

The governor said that wheat flour prices in Sindh would further increase if the provincial government didn’t release the wheat stocks by November. “I suspect that they would not release stocks now despite that they claim that they have 1,200 tonnes of wheat,” he said.

He said that flour should be available at the cost of Rs 55 per kg in Sindh if wheat is released by October 15. He said that wheat stocks were available in the province but despite that the Sindh government had been denying the availability of essential food commodity to the people of Sindh.

The governor appealed to the federal government to exert its influence to the full extent to make sure that the Sindh government releases wheat in a timely fashion. He said that flour was available in Punjab at a price of Rs55 per kg but the price of same essential food commodity in Sindh was Rs74 per kg.

The Sindh governor also informed media persons that 40 more buses would reach Karachi Port on Thursday (today) for the Green Line section of the Bus Rapid Transit Service (BRTS) being completed in Karachi.

He said that after arrival of 40 more buses, the fleet of buses for the Green Line section of BRTS would increase to 80. He said the session was on to train the drivers of Green Line buses as the government had been doing its best to make the BRTS service operational in Karachi in one month. He said that the completion of Karachi Circular Railway project would take two years. He said the federal government had failed to launch Sehat Insaf Cards in Sindh as the provincial government had not approved the plan. The federal government had also been facing problems created by the Sindh to build low-cost housing units in the province.