Crushing season from Nov 25: Cane support price fixed at Rs300 per 40kg.

LAHORE -- The Punjab cabinet on Friday declared mandatory for the sugar mills in the province to launch crushing from Nov 25, besides according approval to fixing the support price of sugarcane at Rs300 per maund.

Earlier, addressing the cabinet members, Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi lambasted the Pakistan People's Party-run Sindh government for what he called 'unprecedented increase' in the spread of diseases among the flood-hit population of the province, censuring it for 'doing nothing but politics'.

'The Punjab government has allocated Rs1 billion for Sindh government for the flood relief, but unfortunately the latter has yet not conducted any survey in the flood affected areas,' he regretted.

He was chairing the fourth provincial cabinet meeting at his office, that paid tributes to Dr Sania Nishtar for accomplishing the flood relief task in only two months period, successfully running the programme.

The chief minister also lauded the flood relief efforts of Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR) Zahid Zaman Akhter, PDMA Director General Faisal Fareed and their team.

'Disbursement of Rs12 billion among more than 5,000 flood affectees is an unprecedented example,' he said.The cabinet granted approval to incorporate the Bank of Punjab (BoP) in the Ehsaas Rashan Riayat Programme.

The cabinet granted BS-21 to Rescue 1122 Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer, paying tributes to his team.

Mr Elahi appreciated the Rescue 1122 for providing indiscriminate assistance to the flood-affected people, adding that all the provinces were replicating the exemplary institution of Punjab.

The cabinet also granted approval for formulation of regulations for the registration of electric vehicles. It was principally decided to run electric rickshaws in Punjab. The CM said that 50 per cent subsidy would be provided to the electric vehicles in...