HYDERABAD, Oct 23: The Atta Chakki Owners Social Welfare Association has accused food department vigilance team and officials of the department of harassing Chakki owners and trying to hoodwink people by providing incorrect statistics about wheat supply to grinding units.

Speaking at a news conference here on Thursday, the president of the association, Haji Nawab Ali, denied that they were charging high price of flour but said that the association had submitted an application for an increase in flour price as Hesco had increased power tariff by 35 per cent from September 9 and transportation charges had also increased.

He attributed flour crisis to insufficient wheat quota for the Chakkis according to the population census of 1998. He said that the population of Hyderabad district according to the 1998 census was 1,494,866 and added that at the rate of three per cent increase in the population per annum, it had jumped to 1,943,325 during the last 10 years.

It was quite natural that the flour requirement had also increased correspondingly but still wheat was supplied to Chakkis according to the 1998 census, Mr Ali said.

He refuted the claim of the vigilance committee and the food department officials that the roller flour mills were producing 80 per cent of flour from wheat quota supplied to them. “The roller flour mills hardly produce 20 per cent of flour from their wheat quota and even this 20 per cent is sent outside the district,” he said.

He claimed that 95 per cent flour requirement of the people of the district was being met by the grinding units which were supplying nutritious flour without extracting Sooji and Maida.

He warned that if the food department did not change its attitude to the Chakki owners and failed to ensure judicious distribution of wheat, they would be forced to announce their future course of action in 24 hours. However, he did not disclose what their future course of action would be.

Answering another question, he said that total requirements of wheat in Hyderabad district were 230,931 bags but the food department was supplying only 80,000 bags per month. To meet the shortfall, he added, the Chakki owners had to purchase wheat from the open market and added that the difference of price between the wheat supplied by the food department and the open market was Rs1,000 per bag.