TIMERGARA: The Lower Dir administration on Wednesday asked the owners of all the seven flour mills operating across the district to provide 6,800 bags of subsidised wheat flour to local residents daily.

The directives were issued by additional deputy commissioner Ashfaq Ahmad Tarani during a meeting with owners of the flour mills, local traders and officials of food department said.

The meeting was informed that 157 tons of subsidised wheat was being provided to the seven flour mills as per their quota daily.

District food controller Abu Bakar told the meeting that Rs808 had been fixed for a 20kg flour bag, saying the millers had been directed to provide 950 flour bags each to specified dealers daily. He said the mills had been directed to provide 2,300 flour bags to Timergara, 2,000 to Adenzai, 1,000 to Lal Qilla and 1,500 to Samarbagh daily. He added 620 flour bags were being provided daily to the neighbouring Bajaur tribal district.

Additional deputy commissioner Ashfaq Ahmad Tarani said there was no flour shortage in the district. He directed the millers to strictly follow the government-specified rate and weight of a flour bag. He said in case of violation the mills would be sealed and their quota suspended.

ILLEGAL EXCAVATIONS BANNED: Taking notice of media reports and directives from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, deputy commissioner Saadat Hassan on Wednesday chaired a meeting of all the stakeholders to immediately stop excavation of stones and sand on the riverbeds in the district.

The officials assured complete administrative support to the mines & minerals department in implementing the section 56 of the Mines and Minerals Act, 2019.

The meeting authorised the assistant director of minerals department to lodge FIRs against the violators of the ban.

The deputy commissioner asked the participants to make collective efforts to stop illegal excavation of stone and sand from riverbeds. He directed the executive engineer of irrigation department to curb such excavations in the Panjkora River and other tributaries.

Also in the day, district and sessions judge Kulsoom Azam held a meeting with the stakeholders and asked them to register cases against the people found involved in excavation of sand and stones from the riverbeds.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2020