PESHAWAR: Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Muhammad Sohail Afridi, chaired a meeting with the food department and directed officials to take stronger action against illegal profiteering and hoarding.
The Chief Minister instructed authorities to increase field visits for public convenience and develop a comprehensive plan for achieving self-sufficiency in food grains. During the briefing, he emphasized the importance of ensuring the availability of food items at official rates.
Steps should be taken to enhance the province’s wheat storage capacity. The annual wheat requirement for the province is 5.3 million metric tons, with local production accounting for 1.4 million metric tons. The remaining 3.8 million metric tons are sourced from other provinces.
In the last six months, the Food Directorate conducted inspections of 186,312 shops. As a result, 8,802 shops were fined, and penalties totaling Rs. 31 million were imposed. The Halal Food Authority destroyed 403,191 kg/liters of harmful products during 86,817 inspections, with fines amounting to Rs. 84 million imposed during the same period.
Licenses were issued to 38,710 businesses, and 1,243 new food products were registered under the supervision of food businesses. Out of the food samples tested through mobile and central labs, 12,213 were found to be satisfactory, while 4,812 were declared substandard.
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