Ghost flour mills to be shut: Aleem Khan

LAHORE :Punjab Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan has said that ghost flour mills will be closed across Punjab and they will not get official quota of wheat from Food Department.

He said that strict action would be taken against those mills which were getting wheat quota from government and not working properly. These views were expressed by Punjab Senior Minister for Food Abdul Aleem Khan while talking to an 11-member delegation of Progressive Group of Flour Mills which included owners of different flour mills of Punjab.

Provincial Minister Mian Khalid Mahmood was also present on this occasion. Aleem Khan said Food Department had been directed to adopt a pragmatic policy in which better mechanisms for distribution of wheat to flour mills would be introduced and existing policies would be upgraded. Senior Minister said that Food Department was given an important task by Prime Minister Imran Khan which would be fulfilled 100 percent. He expressed satisfaction over the fact that wheat production in Punjab is expected to be higher than the target this year and wheat procurement drive is going on satisfactorily.

Aleem Khan said there was no fear of flour shortage anywhere in the province. He appealed to the flour mills owners to come forward considering this sector as a mission and identify the culprits of artificial scarcity and hoarding. He said that strict action was being taken against wheat hoarding in Punjab like the rest of the country under the new Ordinance. The illegal warehouses have been sealed in Dera Ghazi Khan where 30,000 wheat bags had been recovered. He stressed that smuggling and hoarding would not be tolerated under any circumstances. He said that besides the Food Department, intelligence agencies had also been called in to help in cracking down on this mafia. Senior Minister listened to the demands of Progressive Flour Mills and assured them of a solution. Among the meeting participants were owners of various flour mills Mian Muhammad Shafiq, Mian Khaliq Arshad, Majid Abdullah, Sheikh Fayyaz Ahmed and Khurram Shehzad who suggested that they had reservations about wheat subsidy and quota being given to flour mills which should be rationalised.