January 07, 2008	Monday	Zilhaj 27, 1428

QUETTA, Jan 6: The flour crisis being faced by the people of Balochistan will be resolved within the next few days with the release of fresh wheat stocks.

The provincial home secretary, Furqan Bahadur Khan, said this while speaking at a press conference along with the secretary food, Azam Baloch, here on Sunday.

He said that the entire country, including Balochistan, was facing flour crisis and the government had taken serious steps to resolve the problem.

He said that the government had again given anti-smuggling powers to the Frontier Corps to stop the smuggling of wheat and flour across the border.

He said that special teams had been constituted to check illegal hoarding of wheat and flour in Quetta and other areas of the province.

The home secretary said: “Special teams were strictly monitoring the work of flour mills and sale of flour at fair-price shops.”

He said that flour mill owners had been asked to submit a daily report of the wheat grinded in their mills.

He said that the government had also increased the wheat quota of all districts of the province and was also enhancing the number of fair-price shops and sale points to provide flour to the people at government rates.

Mr Baloch said that huge stocks of wheat were available at PR centres and more would start reaching there by Monday.

He said that Customs had also been asked to send the record of issuing of permits for exporting wheat and flour to Afghanistan so that smuggling could be checked at the border.

He said that Balochistan needed 75,000 metric tons of wheat on a monthly basis; however, the government was providing only 38,000 metric tons monthly while the remaining came from the open market.