PESHAWAR, Oct 22: The government has warned the flour millowners of strict action if they produced and sold sub-standard flour to the people during the holy month of Ramazan.

Speaking at the Guest Hour programme of the Peshawar Press Club here on Wednesday, NWFP Minister for Food, Excise and Taxation Fazl-i-Rabbani advocate said that the government had already issued a strict warning and no flour millowner would be spared in case he sold adulterated flour to retailers during the holy month.

He said the government had announced a special Ramazan package and it would supply extra wheat to flour mills in the province on subsidised rates.

“The wheat quota of flour mills has been increased from 700 to 1100 tons and the government will provide this quantity on a regular basis,” he said.

Mr Rabbani said that when he took over the charge, only 67 flour mills were running throughout the province and the government was supplying only 500 tons of wheat to them. Now, he said, 103 flour mills were operational and the government had gradually increased the wheat supply to 700 tons and from the start of Ramazan it would supply 1100 tons of wheat on a regular basis.

Mr Rabbani said that every flour mill would provide 20kg flour bag for Rs180 during Ramazan on every Sunday at three points in every provincial constituency. And every point would sell 1000 bags flour, he added.

On a query about the cattle smuggling to Afghanistan, the minister said that the government had stopped the export permits to bring meat prices down in local markets.

However, he said, the federal government had already allowed the export of 50,000 head of cattle to Afghanistan out of which 12,000 head of cattle would be sent through the Torkham border in the Khyber Agency.