Punjab says to abolish wheat quota of striking mills for good

LAHORE: The Punjab Food Department has decided to permanently cut the share of wheat quota of striking flour mills, which have failed to provide flour to masses on subsidised rate.

All deputy directors of Food Department have been instructed to prepare lists of striking and non-striking mills. The department has decided to devise a policy that quota of striking mills would be reduced permanently to a percentage on strike call, stated the departmental instructions.

However, no criminal action against any flour mill owner has been initiated yet. The data of persons causing flour shortage by instigating the strike is being collected as per the law and provided to the institutions concerned. Majority of the mills are against the strike as 80 per cent of the mills have availed the wheat quota.

The mills of the province have a daily grinding capacity of over 200,000 metric tons. The Food Department provides 26,000 metric tons of subsidised wheat daily. The government could supply flour to the province as per requirement only from 25 per cent of the mills, said a senior official. He claimed that the “patriotic” flour millers did not go on strike, and the provincial Food Department had decided not to tolerate any blackmailing on the part of striking flour mills.

Secretary Food Muhammad Zaman Wattoo said on Sunday action over wheat quota embezzlement would continue against the mills. The wheat flour issued for the poor people would not be allowed to be embezzled under any circumstances, he warned. The government was supplying wheat to the mills at only Rs2,300 per maund against the market rate of Rs4,200 per maund, he said and added that the subsidised wheat would not be allowed to be sold illegally in the market.

Meanwhile, the ruling group of Punjab Flour Mills Association (PFMA) said they would not lift wheat from the government stock from Monday (today) and supply of flour would be stopped from Tuesday.

PFMA Punjab Chairman Iftikhar Matto, however, for the first time on Sunday, disassociated his association from the mills involved in misuse of official wheat quota, saying the PFMA would end the membership of such companies.