SWABI: The price of wheat has jumped from Rs1,450 to Rs 2,200 per 50 kilogrammes bag here in the district, local businessmen and consumers toldthis correspondent on Friday.

Sources in flour mills said that when the harvesting season started the mills owners went from village to village for procurement of wheat from the farmers on a price little higher than the government-fixed rate under a well-planned strategy.

“Farmers are always financially weak and could be easily exploited,” said an employee of a flour mill.

The mills owners said on condition of anonymity that in the current year there was a complete ban on inter-provincial movement of wheat which had already caused shortage of the commodity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

They claimed that if the government failed to adopt a result-oriented strategy there might be flour shortage in the province in near future, leading to increase in the price of wheat flour in the province.

Mills owners fear flour shortage in near future

The consumers said they also faced problems in acquiring wheat during harvesting and threshing season at the government-fixed rate because the mills owners were offering higher price to farmers.

“Buying wheat is an uphill task these days as the businessmen are charging consumers at will,” said Sher Ali Khan of Swabi city.

When contacted, a businessmen claimed that they would soon get wheat from Punjab, which would be sold at Rs2,700 per 50kg.

ROAD MISHAP: A man, identified as Yahya Khan, died when he was hit by a speeding car in Chota Lahor tehsil on Friday.

Mother of the deceased has registered an FIR in Chota Lahor police station against the driver who fled the scene after the accident.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2020