May 20, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 14, 1429

RAWALPINDI, May 19: Almost 75 per cent of flour mills in Rawalpindi and Islamabad have been closed due to suspension of wheat supply despite Punjab government’s decision to lift the condition of permit needed for inter-district movement of wheat within the province.

However, the district coordination officers in the entire wheat growing districts have refused to allow flour mills to lift wheat from their respective districts saying they have not received the notification issued by the Punjab Food Department.

The DCO of Rawalpindi Jamal Mustafa Syed confirmed to Dawn on Monday afternoon that he had not yet seen the notification.

The District Food Controller Chaudhry Mohammad Asif, when contacted, said the Punjab Home Department was informing all respective district coordination officers about the government’s decision.

The seriousness of the government can be measured from the fact that the notification could not be dispatched from Lahore even on Monday whereas the decision was taken on Saturday.

Admitting that the flour mills were facing acute wheat crisis, Mr Asif hoped that the situation would start to ease from Tuesday, when the decision would go into effect.

As per the decision of Punjab Food Department, flour mills in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, being the wheat-deficient area, would be allowed to keep stock for one month, he said.

It has happened for the first time after the formation of the present government that a decision taken at the provincial level was not being pursued at the level of districts.

Either there is complete lack of coordination between the decision makers and those who have to implement it or the provincial government has failed to devise a firm policy to resolve the crisis once for all.

The ad hoc policies of the Punjab government have not only deepened the wheat flour crisis in the twin cities but it has also thrown all the 85 operational flour mills at the hands of “angels” who are in action on motorways and highways to block movement of wheat stocks to Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Owner of a flour mill told Dawn that he was suffering a loss of Rs15,000 daily for shutting the mill.

The “angels” charge Rs100 per 100kg bag of wheat for the legitimate movement of the commodity to the mills of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, the mill owner claimed. “It is extremely difficult to sell wheat flour at the controlled rate of Rs375 per 20kg bag,” he asserted.

When contacted, Punjab Food Minister Malik Nadeem Kamran said all district coordination officers must have received the notification by now, and he would personally look into the matter if complaints received from any area.

He did not agree that 75 per cent of flour mills in Rawalpindi and Islamabad were closed.

He said the notification was issued following the lengthy deliberations between the

Food Department and the Pakistan Flour Mills Association and the government has fulfilled all the demands of the mill owners.

In the meantime, the Food Department Rawalpindi sent ten trucks of Atta to Murree. The department has been authorised to issue wheat to three places in NWFP.

Nowshera will receive 86 metric tons of wheat on a daily basis, Malakand 45 metric tons daily and Mardan 65 metric tons daily. Other cities of NWFP were receiving their required quantity of wheat from other food departments in the Punjab.