Committee to devise price control strategy

LAHORE: AdvisEr to Chief Minister for Political Affairs Muhammad Akram Chaudhry said it was responsibility of the government to provide quality food items on low price. He asked the authorities concerned to make easy access to markets for common man.He also directed to constitute a committee to resolve the issues of these markets. He said the price mechanism was not realistic hence there was a need to make a strategy to make our price mechanism realistic.He said this while chairing the maiden task force on price control meeting. Minister for Agriculture Nauman Langrial, Minister for Food Sami-Ullah Chaudhry, Secretary Industries Nadeem-ur-Rehman, Lahore additional deputy commissioner, deputy commissioner Kasur, deputy commissioner Gujranwala, deputy commissioner Sheikhupura and other representatives from the concerned departments also attended.Director General Industries Waseem Raza Jafari briefed the meeting about the price control mechanism and said 18 essential items including; potato, tomato, onion, rice, sugar, meat and chicken were being monitored on daily basis.He said price of potato has decreased whereas price of chicken and tomato has increased according to the monthly price trend. Nauman directed the deputy commissioners concerned to constitute price control committees in their respective districts after consultation with the elected representatives of the districts within 15 days and check their performance on regular basis as well.The existing price control mechanism was also reviewed in the meeting at length and recommendations were also made to improve the existing system in the province and at district level.Housing scheme feasibility discussed: Punjab Minister for Housing & Urban Development Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed has said the launching of ‘Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme’ was a reflection of creation of welfare state which would honour to provide five million housing units for low-income people.He was addressing a meeting held to review the pre-feasibility reports prepared by Urban Unit and Housing Department Punjab, regarding the said scheme being initiated in Chiniot and Sialkot.The meeting discussed all the matters pertaining to layout, population of nearby localities, distance from other cities, cost of land, design, legal framework, development model, sales & marketing and subsidy in detail.The minister said 2.5 million housing units would be built up in Punjab and all the stakeholders would be taken into confidence in this connection. Initiation of housing units across the province is revolutionary step by the Punjab government and this scheme would soon be extended to the rural areas phase-wise, he added.The meeting was attended by Member P&D Agha Waqar, Additional Secretary Housing Shafique Ahmed, Urban Unit CEO Khalid Sher Dil, Punjab Housing and Town Planning Agency DG Zia-ud-Din Satti, Senior Specialist Nadia Qureshi, Housing Taskforce General Secretary Atif Mayo and representatives of builders and developers. Disconnection of gas supply of defaulted gas consumersNotices on SNGPL defaulters: Sui Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL), Managing Director Amer Tufail in continuity of the strict policy against defaulters ordered to disconnect supply to government and special domestic defaulting consumers.In order to recover outstanding dues from government defaulting / special domestic consumers, disconnection notices were served on them for early settlement of outstanding arrears. In this regard, SNGPL has disconnected 23 defaulting consumers having cumulative gas bills default of Rs25,256,270.

from The News International - Lahore https://ift.tt/2NooYrk