MULTAN: The food department has procured 247,957.826 metric tonnes of wheat so far, which is 38.09 percent more than the 0.6 million metric tonnes procurement target set across the Multan division.
Deputy Director Food Shahid Khokhar expressed these views while talking to reporter here on Thursday.
He said that the gunny bags distribution process was also underway through 48 wheat procurement centres and 384,472.9 metric tonnes of gunny bags had been distributed among growers so far, which is 59.06 percent of the total.
He said that the departmental teams conducted 186 raids and took 6037.62 metric tonnes of wheat into custody, adding that they also registered seven cases across the region.
The target of 1,84,558 metric tonnes of was set for Multan district, 95,764 metric tonnes for Lodhran, 1,28,185 metric tonnes for Vehari while 2,30,000 metric tonnes of wheat was to be procured in Khanewal district.
He hoped that the department would easily achieve the set target as the procurement drive would continue till the completion of the target.
Khokhar said that the timely payment to wheat growers was being ensured through Punjab bank branches.