Quota of 12 flour dealers cancelled

MARDAN: District food officer controller (DFC) has cancelled a quota of more than 12 subsidised flour dealers while people complained about the unavailability of the subsidised flour dealers in the district.

It may be noted that the district food department has allotted quotas to more than 560 dealers for the sale of subsidised flour.

More than 22 flour mills in Mardan were supposed to provide subsidised flour to 560 dealers per day. The district food Department allegedly included the names of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf workers, relatives of the flourmills’ owners and those of senior officials in the lists.

The sources added that the majority of the quota holders in Mardan leave their flour bags in the flourmills and later the mill owners allegedly sell the commodity in the market. It is alleged that some journalists also obtained quota of the subsidised flour.

Several individuals got three to five quotas under different names. Later, former food minister Mohammad Atif Khan transferred DFC Mardan on a complaint of large-scale wastage of government flour in the district.

Deputy Commissioner Abdur Rehman later issued a notification stating that all flour dealers of Mardan, who had been approved previously, were hereby de-notified. A committee was also notified that included the officials of the district administration and Food Department to scrutinise new applications of flour dealers in the district within five days.