SUKKUR, Dec 6: The crisis of flour is worsening in the Sukkur division and its adjoining areas and flour which was earlier available at Rs10 per kilogramme is now being sold at Rs16 per kilogramme.

A survey conducted by this correspondent here on Saturday revealed that according to figures there should have been 1.80 million wheat bags in godowns of the food department but one million bags were missing and the remaining bags were provided to flour mill owners and shopkeepers after receiving Rs50 extra per bag.

It was alleged that the shortage of flour in the interior of Sindh was because Sukkur food officials had sold more than one million wheat bags to wholesalers and flour mill owners of Karachi after getting Rs50 extra per bag.

Some 100 flour mills are operating in the Sukkur region, out of which 30 are working in the Sukkur city.

This month, the wheat quota was not supplied to these mills which resulted in the closure of half of the mills and the remaining mills were paying higher price for wheat.

Sindh Flour Mills Association vice-chairman Aijaz Ahmad Baloch said the issue of wheat shortage was raised during a meeting held on Oct 21 between the association and Sindh food secretary Ameer Ali Barq.

He said it was decided at the meeting to immediately provide 40,000 wheat bags each to Sukkur and Hyderabad regions and 10,000 bags each to Mirpurkhas and Larkana regions but the food department did not provide the quota.

It was learnt that following a decision taken at a meeting held in Karachi, 20,000 wheat bags were sold to flour mills of Larkana after getting Rs60 extra per bag and the remaining bags were sold to shopkeepers and grind mill owners on recommendation of politicians and bureaucrats.

Flour mill owners said the government had asked them to sell flour at Rs10 per kilogramme in Ramazan which they did. He said fair price shops were also established for the purpose.

They said food department officials sold the whole wheat stock by charging Rs50 and Rs60 extra per bag which led to the price hike.

It was learnt the government had decided to sell the 600,000 bags of wheat which was of poor quality to overcome the flour shortage. The wheat which was to be sold at Rs827 per bag was sold at Rs900 per bag to stockists and mill owners. The average quality wheat which was to be sold at Rs850 per bag was sold at Rs950 per bag.

Now, mill owners of Sindh are purchasing wheat from Punjab at a rate which is higher than that fixed in Sindh.

Food officials said the shortage of wheat had prevailed for the last five years but the department had not shown it in the record.

They said on recommendations of influential persons, wheat was sent to Karachi which caused the shortage in the region.