PESHAWAR: The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is considering a proposal in the upcoming budget to provide a food assistance package between Rs25 billion to Rs30 billion to the people.
Provincial Minister for Food Mohammad Atif Khan and Special Assistant to Chief Minister Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif told a news conference here on Monday that the package will be the largest in the province’s history.
Mr. Khan stated that Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had been briefed on the planned package, which he expected to be revealed in the next budget. He claimed the package would cost Rs25 billion to Rs30 billion and would contain pulses, flour, ghee, and sugar. He stated that his department was now working on building a system for the package that would make it effective and free of corruption.
Mr. Khan stated that the food department began giving 6,500 tonnes of flour to people daily at the beginning of the month, but that number has now dropped to 5,000 tonnes. “After the start of Ramazan, over six million bags of flour were given,” he continued.
According to him, the government is likewise attempting to prevent hoarding. Pakistan, he claimed, went from being a net exporter to becoming a net importer. He stated that the government needed to expand cultivable areas and implement new agricultural practices to address the issue of rising food prices, which would cost billions of rupees in the long term. The relief packages, on the other hand, he argued, were only a temporary measure to help consumers cope with rising prices.
Mr. Khan stated that the province’s wheat need was more than 1.1 million tonnes, with 100,000 tonnes coming from Punjab, 500,000 tonnes coming from imports, and the remaining 500,000 tonnes arriving from Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation.
