VEHARI, Feb 7: People of Vehari have protested against the use of substandard ingredients in preparation of subsidized flour at some local mills.

A survey revealed that 12 mills of the district were selected by the district administration to provide subsidized flour from Jan 15 at Rs170 per 20kg bag. The district administration set up 27 centres in three tehsils to distribute flour bags among the deserving people.

As many as 8,100 bags were to be distributed among the needy, but the district administration could not achieve the target. According to a source in the food department, only 10 flour bags had been distributed during 22 days as people were least interested in buying these bags.

A group of consumers alleged that unhygienic ingredients like husk had been mixed with and maize extracted from the flour in subsdized bags. They demanded strict action against the culprits.

Some employees of local flour mills however denied the impression that anything could be mixed with wheat during the process of grinding.

A doctor, Umer Shah, told this reporter that unhygienic or substandard flour could cause abdominal diseases. He added that the government had fixed a criteria that 10 per cent brown flour and 10 per cent maize should be extracted from wheat during the grinding process. It was observed that for open market, mills adopted many stages of grinding but for subsidized bags, they reduced the number of stages to save electricity and time.

According to the criteria for provision of subsidized flour bags, a family comprising six members with an income of less than Rs3,000 deserved these bags under a coupons system. So far, coupons have not been provided to people. Union council Nazims and legislators are associated with this task.

The list of deserving people included many who reportedly had reasonable incomes while complaints about sale of these bags at shops were also received.

District Food Controller Shabbir Ahmed Alvi said that the food department and the district administration would check the quality of flour and nobody would be allowed to play with the health of people. He further said those found selling these bags in the open market would be booked and the quota for their mills suspended.