February 02, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 23, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Feb 1: The food department has served show-cause notices on 15 mills operating in the twin cities for not lifting their wheat quota from government godowns for grinding that curtailed the flour supplies and kept the prices rising.

The notices were served on four mills in Islamabad and 11 in Rawalpindi on the directives of the Federal Food Committee (FFC).

Meanwhile, the food department said it had also started negotiating with some 61 private wheat grinding units (Chakkis) in the twin cities to register them with the government in order to get their share in Punjab’s wheat quota. This would help in augmenting wheat supplies in the market.

On a daily basis, the total 86 mills in the twin cities are supposed to lift 4,741 tons (over 47,000 bags of 100kg) wheat from the government and grind it on the same day and release flour to the market. On the 9th of Muharram, these mills had to pick their quotas not only for the same day but also for the following day as well due to the official holiday.

But the mills did not pick the quota which affected supplies in the local market and hindered the fall of prices in the following days.

The four mills in Islamabad which were issued show-cause notices are Sarwar Flour Mill, Mukhtar Flour Mill, New Arshad Flour Mills and New Al-Hilal Flour Mill.

A total of 43 mills operate in the federal capital all of which are located in sector I-9 and I-11 in clusters. A similar number of mills operate in Rawalpindi. Most of these mills could be found in Westridge, Sihala and adjacent areas.

The Pindi-based mills served with show cause notices include Al-Wahab Flour Mill, Punjab Flour Mill, Naseer Flour Mill, Sagar Floor Mill, Hameed Flour Mill, Jan and Jan Flour Mill, Ghani Flour Mill, Potohar Flour Mill, Al-Rehman Flour Mill, Al-Khyzria Flour Mill and Chaudhry Flour Mills.

Rawalpindi’s deputy director food Rashid Razi told Dawn that after receiving the show-cause notices, the mills had started picking more wheat. He said mills on Friday lifted 43,000 bags of 100kg from the government godowns compared to their quota of over 47,000 bags daily. The difference of over 4,000 bags daily was due to ‘flour saturation’ in the market. He hoped that mills would start picking their full quota if they saw there was demand for flour in the market.

He said a few mills had submitted their replies to the show- cause notices and had mentioned technical reasons and unavailability of labourers as the main reasons for failing to pick their quota.

In response to question, he said talks were still being held with the owners of chakkis for their registration but the owners were not ready to accept the government’s demand for selling atta at Rs15 per kg.

Mr Razi said the government planned to provide wheat to chakkis at Rs11.7 per kg and they would have to sell flour at Rs15 per kg in the market. But, he said, the chakkis were demanding that they should be allowed to sell the flour at Rs17 per kg.

“This is too much. It would be an injustice to the consumers if we accept this demand,” the official observed.

Ex-mills rate (flour being sold at the gates of the mills) remained at Rs285 per 20kg in the sister cities on Friday. While retail price of the same quantity stayed at Rs295.