By Amjad Yousaf Zai
TAXILA: The flour crisis looms over Rawalpindi region as mill owners not getting required of wheat stock from food department besides the wheat supplied to the flour mills is substandard.
Office bearers of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association Rawalpindi chapter, in meeting held here on Tuesday while calling the attention of Punjab government over the looming flour crisis over Rawalpindi division especially Rawalpindi and Islamabad due to poor policies of the food department and demands its urgent redressal. They said that around 130 flour mills operating in the Rawalpindi district, in which over 50 are in Taxila and Wah have not received wheat from local stocks of the food department and wheat supplied from other districts of Punjab especially Sargodha has moisture issue and 20 to 30 percent of wheat is rotten. “The authorities need shrill alarm bells to snap out food department of deep slumber for supply of rotten wheat to flour millers as it grinding and sale in market may cause stomach related diseases among the faithful during the sacred month of Ramzan”. They added They said that this year, the Punjab government has decided not to give subsidy on flour bags this Ramazan, which would affect the public procurement power especially margined segment of the society.
Sheikh Muhammad Saeed while answering a question has said that the wheat stocks were not only rotten but the bags were also mixed with sand. He added that 20-25 percent wheat grain in every bag is rotten and if it is grind and supplied in the market, it would cause stomach diseases among consumers.
