VEHARI, Jan 27: Local consumers say flour available at district administration sale points is of poor quality.

A of total 13 mills were selected to supply flour to as many sale points set up in the district. The official rate for a 20-kg bag was fixed at Rs295.

Sources said the administration had planned to sell 18,000 bags in the district to overcome the shortage but it could not achieve the target because of poor quality of the flour.

Some of those who had purchased the bags from official sale points complained that impurities like husk had been found in the flour. However, some of the mills denied any impurities in their products.

A doctor, Maqsood Ahmed, said according to the food department criteria, 10 per cent brawn and an equal percentage of fine flour should be extracted during the grinding process, alleging that the millers were not following the specifications when supplying the commodity to the sale points. That also meant reduced electricity bills and production time for the millers, he added.

District Food Controller Abdul Hafeez Khan claimed the food department and the district administration would strictly monitor the flour quality to ensure that nobody should put people’s health at risk.

He warned the sale point owners found selling flour bags in the open market would be booked. He said the food department was providing 3,240 wheat bags to the flour mills in the district on a daily basis to overcome the shortage.

Meanwhile, hoarding and black-marketing were going unchecked in the district. A 20-kg flour bag was being sold at from Rs350 to Rs400 in the market.

The state-owned utility stores were also without flour on Saturday.