December 12, 2003	Friday	Shawwal 17, 1424

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SUKKUR, Dec 11: The Sindh government has decided to purchase 200,000 tons of wheat from Punjab and 60,000 tons from the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supplies Corporation to overcome shortage of wheat in the province.

Official sources told this correspondent here on Thursday that the first lot of Passco wheat would reach Karachi by tomorrow and that the Sindh food and agriculture minister had told authorities in the interior of Sindh that the wheat would reach their godowns in two to three days.

Wheat from Punjab will be received in dispatches of 1,500 to 2,000 tons daily at different Sindh cities.

The Sindh government has asked mill owners to reduce the price of flour to Rs10 per kilogramme otherwise they would not be supplied with their wheat quota and their licences would be cancelled.

Sindh Flour Mills Association vice-president Aijaz Baloch said here that they had decided to supply wheat flour at Rs11.50 per kilogramme to the market where it would be available at Rs12 per kg.

He said it was up to the government to ensure that flour was sold at Rs12 per kg.

Sindh Food Minister Arif Mustafa Jatoi has held a meeting with the mills association and asked them to reduce the rate of flour to Rs10 per kg.

Mill owners from Sukkur, Larkana, Nawabshah and different areas of the interior of Sindh complained of irregularities being committed by the food department.

They said due to the non-release of the wheat quota, they were compelled to purchase wheat from open market at a higher rate which had led to the price hike.