Flour mill owners call off strike

HARIPUR: The flour mill owners have resumed their routine business and called off strike following a meeting with district administration, official sources and millers said on Thursday.

Tahir Mahmood, the local miller and one of the office-bearers of Haripur Flour Mills Association, said that the representatives of provincial Flour Mills Association and from other parts of Hazara Division held a meeting with the district administration and apprised them of the problems and harassment they were facing at the hands of assistant commissioners.

The office-bearers told the deputy commissioner that the harsh attitude meted out to them especially imposition of heavy fines and paying surprise visits during night time and early in the morning to the flour mills by the assistant commissioners had forced them to go on strike for an indefinite period.

Mahmood added that the millers have agreed to call off their strike, which they started from Monday after the assurance by district administration that they would not visit the flour mills during off times and without accompanying the officials from the local Food Department.

He said that another condition that the district administration had acceded to was allocation of certain numbers of bags for sale from the flour mills to the needy people who were unable to stand in queues.

When contacted, District Food Controller Shiraz Anwar Khan confirmed that the local millers have called off their strike and started lifting their daily quota of subsidised wheat for grinding and supply to the designated sale points in the district.