BAHAWALPUR, Jan 21: Flour is not easily available to people in the open market in many parts of the Punjab due to alleged artificial shortage created by millers.

Reports reaching here on Wednesday said people were facing a great deal of difficulty in getting flour for what retailers alleged "corruption by the millers."

They claimed that the millers had stopped the supply of flour to them on the pretext that they (millers) were supplying stocks to the local administration under the chief minister's scheme to provide flour to the deserving on subsidized rates. Therefore, they said, the millers were unable to meet the demand of the open market.

However, the fact is that the food department had provided separate wheat quota to mills for the supply of flour under the chief minister's scheme. The district government has established 18 sales points to provide flour bags to the deserving families through coupons issued by the administration.

The general consumers, in the meantime, have protested short supply of flour to the retailers and urged the DCO to take stock of the situation without delay.

FAISALABAD: Police claimed to have booked owners of two flour mills and their wholesale dealers on the charge of selling wheat flour at high rates. Receiving complaints from different quarters about shortage of flour and its escalating prices, the food inspectors paid surprise visits to a number of wholesale shops and mills and checked the supply and rates.