Wheat procurement campaign will start in Rawalpindi district from April 20 as all arrangements for the campaign has been completed.
District Coordination Officer (DCO) Rawalpindi, Capt.Saqib Zafar has said that all arrangements for wheat procurement are being completed in accordance with the instructions of the government and provision of Bardana will be started from mid of this month.
He said that the procurement centers for district Rawalpindi would be set up in tehsil Gujar Khan and tehsil Taxila while the focal persons for these centers would be Assistant Commissioners (ACs).
DCO said that a comprehensive plan in this regard has been formulated while formation of monitoring committees at district level is aimed at providing the farmers all possible facilities and to make all the process transparent. He said the directives have been issued to the authorities concerned that the lists of the wheat farmers should be provided to district food controllers in time.
The DCO informed that the government has set a 3.5 metric tones target for wheat procurement for the Punjab province while 1000 metric tones target for Rawalpindi district has also been fixed.
He said that the wheat growers would be provided all possible facilities with full payment of the support price of their produce.
Encroachments in Rawal Town remain unnoticed: The residents of Circular Road, Saidpur Road and Bunni area have been voicing their concerns over the illegal occupation of these roads by the encroachers, who park their vehicles and set up all sorts of businesses on the roads, not only causing extreme traffic congestion but also creating problems for the pedestrians.
The citizens said that the encroachments are on the rise as the authorities concerned failed to control the situation. They said the encroachers on Saidpur Road and Bunni Chowk had become a headache, as they hampered the movement of even the pedestrians.
The locals urged the authorities concerned to come up with a solution of the problem and remove the encroachments.
They said encroachments had not only marred the beauty of the area, but also damaged the roads as well, causing great hardships for the people traveling through the only route available to them.
The situation has been made worst at Circular Road as the motorcycle dealers and auto workshops owners had occupied both sides of the the road.
“It has become a parking space for the encroachers while fruit sellers have set up stalls on the walkway and road,” a resident of the area said, adding that the phenomenon had become one of the biggest problems for the residents of the garrison city.
A resident of Saidpur Road, Aamir, said the encroachers rule the area and the authorities concerned should remove them.”The encroachers throw garbage in the open. We have lodged several complaints with the administration but so far no action in this regard could be taken,” said Aamir.
He said that the taxi drivers were also contributing to augment the problem, by parking their vehicles on the road particularly near Bunni Chowk.”It is very difficult to cross the Circular Road and Bunni Chowk during the peak hours because the encroachers are running their businesses by occupying the road,” Tahir, a motorist, said.
The residents of these areas said the practice was the main reason behind traffic jams. It is not only the motorists but also the pedestrians are also facing the problem as a routine.
They urged the city district government to remove the encroachments from the roads for a smooth traffic flow.
