PITB makes the ongoing wheat procurement centers efficient:Dr. Saif

Lahore: Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) has made the ongoing wheat procurement at 376 government procurement centers efficient and transparent across the province.

PITB Chairman Dr. Umar Saif said it in a meeting on Friday. He told that the PITB has developed a smartphone application for Food Department Punjab that enables digitization of the farmers’ data approaching procurement centers to sell their wheat crop. He told that the application was saving record of Bardana (bags) to the farmers and the wheat procured at daily basis that can be accessed by the higher authorities too. The application also enables farmers to send their feedback regarding their experience at the govt. procurement center whether it be unwanted behavior of personnel, illegitimate demands, bribe or any kind of malpractices. The name, national Identity card number and mobile phone number of the farmers are collected in main dash board being controlled by the PITB.

“The Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif contacts those numbers through robocal and takes feedback from the wheat sellers. Around 0.2 million robocalls have so far been made out during this season out of which more than 9000 farmers complained while 30,000 expressed their satisfaction about the procurement system. The complaints are referred to the Food department for further necessary action” He added.

Dr. Saif revealed that 2.5 million metric tons wheat had so far been procured against a target of 4.0 million metric tons across 35 districts of Punjab. He said that the technology was playing its significant role in facilitating the common man either living in urban or rural area.  “The technology has brought a big change in form of saving the illiterate, desperate and poor farmers from tactics of Patwari and Food Inspector who devoured a part of their produce up through bribes or commission. The credit goes to the Chief Minister Punjab who desires to bring transparency, accountability and efficiency in the governance system of Punjab.” He concluded.