Audit of 39 flour mills, 300 Chakkis to be conducted in Faisalabad

FAISALABAD: The Faisalabad administration Monday decided to conduct an ‘impartial audit’ of 39 flour mills and 300 Chakies operating in the district that are receiving wheat quota from the government.

Addressing a joint press conference, Commissioner Ishrat Ali and Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Ali said the audit is aimed at assessing the difference between wheat quota and flour production. The commissioner said if any discrepancy was found in the audit, strict action would be taken against the owners of flour mills and Chakis and the difference of rates between the government and market rates will be recovered from them.

The Commissioner said a control room to monitor the availability of flour and its supply at fair price shops and to shop keepers has already been setup in the DC office, He said the monitoring office would monitor the supply of flour in the market round-the-clock. The control room will record the discrepancies in supply of flour. He said two flour mills in Jhang have been sealed and stringent action has been taken against the owner of flour Chaki in Mamoon Kanjun over serious discrepancies.

The commissioner said in case of any complaint filed against the non-supply of flour to citizens is poured in this control room. It would be referred to the AC concerned for probe and proper action.

He said the administration would also check the electricity bills of the flour mills to ascertain the quantity of wheat grind by the flour mills and Chakis.

To a question, the commissioner said there was no ‘crisis of flour’ in Faisalabad division. He said the wheat stock in Faisalabad was sufficient to meet the flour demand of citizens till April,2020. He said after harvesting of wheat new crop next month and the arrival of sufficient imported wheat the existing " Flour Crisis " in the country would be overcome. The commissioner reiterated that the administration was focusing on ‘systematic supply of flour’ in the market.

He said police are taking strong action against manufacturers of kites and chemical-coated strings and recovered over 400,000 kites and chemical-coated strings prepared by 10 factories.

The commissioner said under our monitoring system, over 300 points in Faisalabad are being checked thoroughly to ascertain the supply of flour while the task for checking of quality of food-stuff has been entrusted to Punjab Food Authority.

He announced that the administration would fully cooperate with the checking parties of the provincial food authority to assess the ' quality of food stuffs

The DC said he held talks with the owners of Chakis owners and the owners agreed to supply flour in the market at fixed rates. He said the Chakis owners are told that if they violated the regulations, their wheat quota would be cancelled.

He said the district administration would restore the wheat quota but monitor even one kilogramme flour supply by Chakis owners in the market.

To a question, the DC said he held a meeting with Chakis owners of the district and asked them to supply flour in consonance with wheat quota supplied to them by the government otherwise the defaulters would be taken to task.