May 12, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 6, 1429

RAWALPINDI, May 11: The district administration on Sunday allowed flour mills in the twin cities to lift wheat from across the Rawalpindi division without any permit in a bid to ease the supply of wheat flour in the markets.

District Coordination Officer (DCO) Jamal Mustafa Syed told Dawn that the situation would start improving by Monday afternoon following the replenishment of wheat flour stock.

In the meantime, to mitigate the situation, the administration arranged sale of 20,000 bags of wheat flour through outlets in weekly Itwar Bazaars.

The administration had announced that flour of locally- produced wheat would become available in the market from Saturday. However, shopkeepers complained of no supply from the flour mills. The situation aggravated in certain parts of Rawalpindi as flour mills remained closed on Sunday.

The DCO said in clear terms that the flour mills would not be allowed to increase the price of wheat flour that would continue to be sold at Rs375 per 20kg bag, while the ex-mill rate would also remain the same i.e. Rs365.

As a matter of policy, the supply of wheat to flour mills by the District Food Department traditionally terminates on April 30 each year, but since Rawalpindi is a wheat-deficient area, supply continued till May 7.

Thereafter, flour mills augment their stocks from local market. Wheat production in Rawalpindi district is able to meet only 50 per cent of its requirements. The remaining half is met through purchase from other districts of the province.

Meanwhile, the District Food Department issued over 550 permits to flour mills to purchase wheat from all the districts of the Punjab. These permits allowed purchase of 15 million kilogrammes of wheat.

Informed sources told Dawn that flour mills were more interested to buy wheat from the Gujranwala division due to the fact that the transport cost was less the area could be accessed through the motorway.

Meanwhile, the food department plans to buy 10,000 tons of wheat for its stock. Over 600 tons have already been purchased and procurement teams were busy in their drive in areas of Chakwal, Jhelum and Attock.

In addition to the support price of Rs625 per 40kg, the food department was paying Rs53 per jute bag, Rs7 transportation and Rs25 handling charges.