Cabinet vows to provide wheat seeds to flood-hit farmers

ISLAMABAD, Oct 18 (NNI): The Federal Cabinet has decided that federal government in collaboration with provinces will ensure the provision of wheat seeds to farmers of flood affected areas.
The decision was taken during its meeting held in Islamabad on Tuesday with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the chair.
For this purpose, the provinces and the federal government will ensure the provision of funds with a contribution of 50 percent.
In this regard, the ECC approved a supplementary grant of 3.2 billion rupees to NDMA for procurement of wheat seed and distribution to districts identified by the provinces, which was approved by the Cabinet.
The federal cabinet gave in-principle approval to extend the project of installation of advanced meters in Islamabad to other parts of the country and also to install advanced meters on transformers to reduce line losses.
On the recommendation of the Power Division, the Federal Cabinet also approved measures to promote the use of low-cost solar energy as an alternative to expensive imported fuel across the country.
Considering the average of 7 percent line losses as unsatisfactory, the Prime Minister immediately called for a comprehensive plan to reduce them according to the rate of line losses prevailing at the international level.
The Prime Minister directed to prepare recommendations for reform measures in the electricity distribution companies and for this purpose, a committee was established under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Khawaja Asif.
The committee will formulate a comprehensive action plan after consultation within two weeks and submit it to the cabinet.