Big relief for women: Sindh govt to distribute free electric scooters

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has announced that free electric scooters will be given to women in the province.

Talking to the media, he said that the facility will make their daily commute easier. “The scheme will not only save time and expenses but also provide women with a safe and dignified mode of travel,” he said adding that it aims to facilitate women who rely on public transport for education, employment, or other needs.

Speaking about agricultural and economic relief measures, Shah said that Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto had presented several demands to the federal government to support farmers.

The chief minister said steps were being taken to prevent a wheat crisis in the country, adding that the federal government had sought recommendations from Sindh to boost wheat production.

“To ensure food security, timely provision of fertilisers and other essential supplies is necessary,” Shah said, adding that the government had decided to take measures to avoid shortages.

He said that the wheat stock saved last year had proved useful, as otherwise the country would have had to rely on imports. “Sindh has decided on a production target of between 800,000 and 1.2 million tonnes of wheat,” he added.

Shah noted that the federal government had begun talks with the IMF without taking the provinces into confidence.

“Last year, when the support price for wheat was set at Rs4,000 per maund, we saw record production. This year, the absence of a fixed support price led to a decline in yield,” he said.

He further announced that the provincial government would provide a bag of DAP fertiliser worth Rs14,000 to farmers and insisted that the support price for wheat should not be less than Rs4,000 per maund.

“If we don’t give farmers a fair support price, how can we expect them to grow wheat?” he said, adding that the provincial government aimed to provide relief to farmers to encourage greater cultivation.

The chief minister announced a Rs55.89 billion relief package for farmers, saying the Sindh government was committed to providing them with improved facilities and support.

Earlier, the Sindh government had announced a Rs58 billion relief package for wheat farmers that will benefit around 411,000 cultivators owning between one and 25 acres of land.

In July, a representative body of farmers from Sindh had asked its members to stop growing wheat and support its legal challenge to a new income tax on agriculture.

The decision had raised concerns over the future of Pakistan’s wheat crop and relations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose conditions for a $7 billion loan included imposition of a tax on farm incomes. Under that agreement, Pakistan’s provinces were obliged to assess and collect an income tax on incomes from agriculture.