PESHAWAR, Sept 18: NWFP Chief Secretary Sahibzada Riaz Noor on Tuesday ordered registration of cases against shopkeepers selling flour on higher rates, besides cancelling the wheat quota and sealing the stock of a flour mills.

The chief secretary issued the directives during a surprise visit to various grain markets in Peshawar. Inspector General Police NWFP Mohammad Sharif Virk and officials of the food department and district administration accompanied the chief secretary.

None of the dealers inquired by the chief secretary could produce any receipt of flour they had procured from Punjab. Most of them were charging more than the price fixed by the government.

The dealers argued that since the local flour mills did not produce flour, they had to bring flour from Punjab which ultimately led to an increase in prices.

Consumers in the NWFP are paying Rs100-110 more than what the consumers in Punjab pay for a 20kg bag of flour. In Punjab, the average price of a 20kg bag is Rs290-295, whereas the same is selling at Rs380-400 in Peshawar.

The chief secretary did not agree to the contentions of the dealers and after calculating the transportation cost from Punjab remarked that they (dealers) were earning Rs55 on a 20kg bag. When the chief secretary visited Ashraf road, a hub of food grain dealers, most of the shopkeepers closed down their shops. The chief secretary directed police to arrest all shopkeepers and file cases against them.

He also inspected the flour stock and record of Abid Flour Mills on the main GT Road and ordered the cancellation of its wheat quota for irregularities. He sealed the available stock of 1,200 bags of the flour mills.

He directed the authorities concerned to establish a fair price shop by Wednesday and provide 20kg bag of flour at Rs260.

The chief secretary’s action has irked the All Pakistan Flour Mills Association whose provincial chairman Mohammad Naeem Butt complained that it was breach of an understanding reached with the government.

Talking to Dawn, he said the association had held meetings with the provincial minister for food and ministry officials and it was decided that during Ramazan no market visits would be conducted by the government officials, adding that the government had failed to provide sufficient wheat stock to the local mills.

The provincial food department, Mr Butt said, released 1,500 tons of wheat daily to the local flour mills that came to 70 bags of 40kg per mills. He said with this quantity mills could only run for a couple of hours leaving the owners with no other option but to opt for import wheat from Punjab which increased the overall cost of production.

He said surprise visits to the market could not yield desired results in bringing down the prices of flour. He said the government should increase the quota of mills if it wanted to bring down the prices.