SWABI, May 10: As the flour crisis deepens, people have started stocking fresh produce of wheat to cope with the situation while flourmills have geared up efforts to procure the commodity in sufficient quantity before the end of harvesting season, people in the business said here on Saturday. Harvesting of wheat is in full swing across the district and a stiff competition among flourmill owners, traders and common people is going on to get and store wheat. This behaviour is expected to further increase prices of the commodity.

People said that due to lack of sufficient wheat stock, they suffered greatly and a major chunk of their monthly budget was being spent on flour for the last five months, therefore, they wanted to store the commodity.

According to farmers and traders, with commencing of the harvesting season, orders for wheat procurement had been pouring in from the people who wanted to pay in advance to acquire the commodity. “We had even got orders before the harvesting season,” said Chaman Khan, a farmer.

Last year, during the season, wheat was available at about Rs480 per maund but during the current flour crisis, it could hardly be bought at Rs1,200. The skyrocketing prices have made people worried about the situation. Some government employees and other servicemen told this scribe that they feared flour shortage would deepen in future.

The flourmill owners are buying wheat from the open market where price for the new crop is ranged between Rs850 to Rs870 against the official support price of Rs625 per 40-kg bag. Some flourmill owners and traders said that it was the ‘buying period’ and once they stored wheat then would start the ‘money-making period’.

Consumers criticised the previous government for the flour crisis. They also flayed the mismanagement of the officials of the food department. The also criticised the rule of dealers and flourmill owners during the crisis. They demanded of the district government to set up fair-price shops to supply flour to the public at subsidised rates. They urged the government to monitor supply and distribution of the commodity in the local markets.