December 16, 2007	Sunday	Zilhaj 5, 1428

LAHORE, Dec 15: The City District Government of Lahore on Saturday sealed the provincial metropolis for checking the movement of flour to adjoining districts and decided to make special arrangements for ensuring its free availability by flooding the city market.

Explaining the arrangements at a press conference at his office, District Coordination Officer Mian Muhammad Ijaz said 120,000 flour bags weighing 20kg each would be made available in the city daily from Sunday (today) on the basis of a World Bank indication that a citizen on average required 300 gram flour daily.

A special quota of 200,000 flour bags would be released for Sunday Bazaars, and another 140,000 bags weighing 10kg each would be issued for small consumers.

He said only 97,000 bags had been sold at Sunday Bazaars last week, and added that the City District Government of Lahore had also decided to set up 36 special flour sales points in different parts of the city.

Flour would be available at 30 points from 10am to 7pm and round-the-clock at the remaining six points, two each on Motorway and Multan Road and one each near Saggian Bridge on River Ravi and Raiwind Road.

The district government had deputed its employees not only at the mills but also on the trucks to ensure that the entire wheat quota was ground and sold in the market.

He said the city district government had been able to increase flour supply as the Punjab government had agreed to issue wheat to the mills in the provincial metropolis on a population-basis instead of number of grinding units.

The city was being issued lesser wheat quota despite larger population because it had only 34 mills against 40 in Bahawalpur and 86 in Rawalpindi. The mills in the provincial metropolis were meeting the flour requirement of Sheikhupura and Kasur as well.

He said the increase in wheat quota of mills had also been necessitated because they were not supplementing it with wheat from their own stocks in daily quota of 50,000 bags because its price had increased to Rs680 per 40kg in the open market.

He said flour was available at 1,500 out of 2,500 sales points in the city during a recent survey while its price had shot up because no government distribution network was in place.

The DCO said flour was being sold at high rates at ‘chakkies’, but the government had decided not to proceed against their owners because it was not supplying them wheat at the subsidised rate.

They were purchasing wheat from the open market at the rate of Rs680 per 40kg.

He said pressure on flour supply would continue till the arrival of new wheat crop the next year.