April 21, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 14, 1429

QUETTA, April 20: An increase in the official ex-mill and retail prices of flour by the provincial government has severely affected the availability of the staple food item, with retailers taking advantage of the situation to fleece the common man.

According to official sources, the government increased the ex-mill price of flour from Rs356 to Rs371 per 20kg bag and the retail price to Rs380 from Rs364 after negotiations between striking mill-owners and provincial food secretary Azam Baloch and the mill-owners called off their strike.

The Provincial Food Department would start supplying wheat to mills from Monday, the sources said. The new Chief Secretary, Nasir Mehmood Khosa, has reportedly requested the federal government to provide more wheat to the province.

But despite claims of the food department and mill-owners, flour is not available at the government’s fair-price shops and points, and shopkeepers in Quetta and other parts of the province are fleecing the consumer. A 20kg flour bag is selling at between Rs520 and Rs550 in the open market.

The bag was available at the government-run Utility Stores at subsidised rates, but only some ‘special people’ were able to buy it, said a man standing in a long queue outside a store.

People have to rise early in the morning to queue up at the Utility Stores in the hope of getting a bag but most of them have complained that the stores are forcing them to buy other items along with a bag of flour.

“To get a floor bag one must purchase Rs200 worth of other items,” Gul Mohammad, who was standing in a long queue, told this correspondent.

Utility Stores officials say the quota of flour they get is not sufficient to meet the local demand. “Everybody comes to the Store because of the price difference but we are unable to meet the needs of the people. The supply falls well short of the huge demand,” said zonal manager of Utility Stores Maj (retd) Syed Mazhar Ali Bukhari.

The situation in remote areas of the province is worse and a 100kg flour bag is selling for Rs3,000 in some towns.

Official sources said the government had asked the Frontier Corps and other law-enforcement agencies to take action to stop the smuggling of flour and wheat to Afghanistan.