LAHORE, Oct 7: The Food Department on Tuesday released 500,000 20kg flour bags for sale to the general public throughout the province and another 34,000 to ‘tandoors’ for the provision of cheap roti to people, a meeting was told here.

At the meeting on arrangements for flour supply in the province, Punjab Food Minister Malik Nadeem Kamran was informed that each 20kg flour bag would be sold to people for Rs420. It was informed that ‘tandoors’ were supplied flour for sale of roti at the rate of Rs2. The flour supplied on Tuesday was in addition to 850,000 bags released for retail sale in the open market and another 33,000 bags for ‘tandoors’ earlier.

The minister said there was no shortage of flour anywhere in the province and no complaint of overcharging had been received. The government would ensure supply of flour and roti to the general public at the fixed rates. Stern action would be taken against those found selling flour or roti at higher prices.

Carpet workers: The Ittehad Carpet Industries Labour Union has demanded that salaries and wages of carpet industry workers should be increased commensurate with the cost of living.

Voicing the demand in a meeting held here on Tuesday with Daud Khan, Secretary-General Niaz Khan said carpet workers were being paid only Rs3,500 to Rs4,500 per month instead of a minimum wage of Rs6,000.

The government should ensure payment of prescribed minimum wages to workers and consider a further increase in accordance with the increase in inflation, he said.