January 05, 2008	Saturday	Zilhaj 25, 1428

LAHORE, Jan 4: Reduction in wheat grinding due to electricity loadshedding has aggravated the flour crisis in Punjab. As a result the 20kg flour bag price touched Rs 400 and beyond in most parts of the province.

According to millers, unannounced loadshedding throughout the country has reduced their grinding capacity by 60 per cent.

“The pattern of loadshedding is doing more damage,” says a miller from Lahore. It takes almost 40 minutes to bring a unit to full operation but the supply is suspended in the next few minutes. This (loadshedding) not only hampers grinding but also threatens electricity motors. In such a situation most of the mills keep their units shut most of the time,” he said.

According to him, the millers need a six-hour continuous supply for grinding the entire quota of wheat they get from the Punjab Food Department.

The District Coordination Officer on Friday convened a meeting of the millers and discussed with them the issue. They made a joint request to the PepCo authorities to ensure six-hour supply, which was given a sympathetic hearing.

CLOSURE THREAT: The Lahore Township Industries Association on Friday decided to form a 10-member action committee to give the government a deadline for normalisation of gas and power supplies. If the government did not restore supplies, after the deadline all industrial units would be closed down.

The action committee, headed by Pakistan Association of Industrial Associations Chairman Mian Abuzar Shad, was constituted at the general body meeting of the association held here on Friday. Chairman Amjad Ali Java and Senior Vice Chairman Babar Mahmood Chaudhry will represent the association in the committee which also includes representatives of the Sheikhupura Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Gulberg, Ferozepur Road, Kahna Kachha and Raiwind industrial areas.

Industrialists protests against the unprecedented power and gas loadshedding which, according to them, had jeopardized the production and making meeting of supply targets and payment of wages to employees impossible.

They said foreign buyers were threatening to cancel their orders in case they were not met on time.

It was decided to give a deadline for normalisation of gas and power supplies to the government instead of closing down the units immediately as it would result in termination of over 100,000 workers.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Shad said the unprecedented gas and power crises had exposed the hollow claims of progress and prosperity by the government. He called upon politicians to give serious thought to the crisis, which posed a threat to the future of the country.

EXPORTS: Quaid-i-Azam Industrial Estate President Mian Nauman Kabir has said that 70 per cent industrial units in the estate will not be able to meet the export targets due to massive gas and power loadshedding this year.

In a statement issued here on Friday, Mr Kabir said unprecedented loadshedding had disrupted production in all the 400 industrial units in the estate. Seventy per cent of the units were export-oriented and were not expected to meet their targets. Jobs of more than 40,000 employees working in the units were now threatened.

He urged the government not only to draw long-term and short-term plans for increasing thermal and hydel power production, but also explore the alternate energy resources to meet the requirements of the industry.

All the industries in the country would close and hundreds of thousands of workers would lose their jobs if their energy requirements were not met, he said.