Flour millers observe strike in Punjab; secretary food claims smooth supply
Business
The flour shortage is being feared across the province as millers, food department have locked horns
LAHORE (Dunya News) - Flour millers in Punjab on Monday continued their strike in protest against raids of the Punjab food department for checking subsidised flour and wheat quota dispute.
However, Punjab Secretary Food Zaman Wattoo claimed uninterrupted wheat supply to the flour mills and availability of flour in the markets.
It is learnt that nearly 1,100 flour mills have refused to receive official wheat quota. The closure of mills has come in the wake of raids being conducted by the food officials to check if the mills are grinding official wheat. The raids were also conducted to counter smuggling of wheat and flour.
Sources told Dunya News that the flour supply to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was also affected owing to strike in Punjab. A flour dealer in Peshawar, Sadaqat Khan, said the flour was available only for two to three days, fearing the provincial capital would be facing absence of the basic food item in days to come if flour mills in Punjab were not opened.
Flour millers had earlier announced strike across Punjab from Monday after having dispute with the provincial food department over wheat quota and raids on mills. The announcement was feared to create shortage of flour in Lahore and other cities of the province. Sources told Dunya News that the wheat quota of more than 100 mills had been suspended and that some mills in Lahore, Gujrat and Multan had already halted their operations.
Sources further said the provincial food secretary had ordered to lodge cases against 10 mills and that he wanted to get mill owners arrested.
According to Punjab Flour Mills Association (PFMA) president Iftikhar Matto, the millers want the food department to check the mills as per the defined standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Punjab Food Secretary Zaman Watto, on the other hand, said no legal action was decided against the millers and that 80 per cent mills had lifted their quota of wheat. He claimed that majority of millers were against the strike.
He, however, said the data of those, who were involved in four shortage by inciting others for holding strike, was being gathered and was shared with the departments concerned.
Earlier, Dunya News reported that preparations were started to arrest the owners of flour mills in Punjab after the food secretary on Saturday ordered Deputy Commissioners of 36 districts to impose Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Ordinance starting from Rawalpindi.
On the direction of the food secretary, the District Food Controllers issued notices to take action against the leadership of Flour Mills Association. District Food Controller Rawalpindi has also sent an application to the Deputy Commissioner for legal action against seven Flour Mills Association officials.
In the application, an action has been requested against Khawaja Imran, Tariq Sethi, Samad Qureshi, Qayyum Sethi, Riyazullah Khan.
The district food controller Rawalpindi said the flour mill owners announced the strike in the press conference of the association and also provoked others.
The DFC also wrote in the letter that since the strike announcement was an attempt to create artificial shortage of flour in the market, action should be taken against the Flour Mills Association officials under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Ordinance, 1960.
