RAHIM YAR KHAN: The city of Rahim Yar Khan has been facing a shortage of wheat flour since Friday.

This is happening despite the fact that there are more than 100 main grocery shops in the city and the district administration has nominated 28 grocery stores with the coordination of RYK Karyana Association to provide different items to the customers at their doorstep on the official rates through free home delivery service to quarantine the public at their homes.

On Friday, Ijaz Saqi, an elderly resident of Gulshan-i-Usman, told this correspondent that he had visited almost eight grocery shops in different areas of the city but could not get a single 5kg wheat flour bag. At last, when he was returning back to his home, he found single bag of 10kg flour at a small grocery shop at Shahbazpur Road in the Mud Darbari area.

Some other citizens also complained about the unavailability of flour at grocery shops including chakkis. They said the chakki owners gave the excuse that the food department was not providing them with wheat on official rates and they could not sell flour to the public.

The senior vice-president of RYK Anjuman Karyana Association, Maqsood Imran, confirmed the reports about unavailability of flour. He said the actual reason for this problem was the mills were supplying limited quantity of flour to grocery shops against the required demand. He said a flour mill provided 30 flour bags to a grocery shop but the demand of flour was up to 100 bags.

Meanwhile, Rahim Yar Khan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RYKCCI) on Friday handed over first consignment of 3,000 ration bags to the district administration.

The RYKCCI president claimed that he had shared the details of grocery stocks with the district administration during the lockdown but questioned that who would check the wheat stocks at flour mills.

RYK Assistant Commissioner Aitzaz Anjum told Dawn he was checking all the grocery items regarding their availability and rates at shops on a daily basis but the flour situation was checked by the food department, which provided wheat to the flour mills. However, Anjum said flour was being provided by the flour mills at different points in the district, including the rural areas and the operation was being supervised through pictures. He would check the issue of shortage of flour supply at the grocery shops in the city after talking with district food controller, he added.

VEHARI: People of Vehari are facing a shortage of flour during the lockdown.

People were spotted on Saturday buying wheat flour from the local flour mills. There were many complaints of overcharging for the flour by shopkeepers in the several areas, including Danyal, Muslim Town, Peoples Colony, Sharqi Colony, main city and other localities of Vehari. Even the utility stores don’t have the supply of flour.

A resident of Chak 9-11/WB said that before lockdown he had purchased flour at Rs60 per kg but after the lockdown, the commodity was not available at any shop of the city area.

A labourer belonging to the Peoples Colony said after lockdown various shopkeepers had started overcharging on various fruits and vegetables in the city area. He complained that there were no checks on overcharging, adding that a majority of shopkeepers were not selling their food items, especially fruit and vegetable, at the official rate list of the market committee.

On the other hand, 31 price control magistrate of the district administrate working in the district.

The district administration officials claimed that the strict action against those involved in creating the artificial shortage of flour was being taken.

Deputy Commissioner retired Captain Waqas Rasheed said the continuous monitoring of the flour mills of the district Vehari was going on. He claimed that the quota of the flour mills had increased while the district administration magistrates were checking the stock registers at the shops.

“Artificial shortage of flour would be controlled during the next few days,” he added.

According to press release by the district administration, over Rs0.7m fine has been imposed on shopkeepers for overcharging during a month.

The residents of the various localities, especially labourers, demanded CM Usman Buzdar to look into the matter and ensure flour supply in the markets on a priority basis.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2020