HYDERABAD, Nov 18: The Chakki Owners Welfare Association warned on Tuesday that they would go on an indefinite strike and would not open chakkis until and unless the food department’s vigilance committee had been dissolved.

The warning came at a demonstration held outside the press club by chakki owners who were protesting against alleged excesses of the vigilance committee, supply of substandard wheat and decrease in wheat quota.

The association’s president Haji Nawab Ali said in their address that

Haji Nawab Ali said that the committee chairman Shahnawaz Magsi had made it a habit to raid chakkis in the middle of the night, break open locks, trespass into their chakkis, manhandle workers and insult and humiliate chakki owners.

He said that Mr Magsi along with his armed guards always forced his entry into chakkis without permission and harassed employees. The favourites of the food department were being issued special quota of wheat while the quota for other chakkis was being reduced, he alleged.

He wondered why Mr Magsi never conducted any raid on roller flour mills. Chakki owners were being forced to lift substandard wheat which was red in colour and consumers had refused to purchase it. “Our mills are glutted with red wheat flour and no one is prepared to buy it,” he said.

He claimed that the red wheat was injurious to human health. “Who has authorised Mr Magsi to trespass into chakkis, manhandle employees and humiliate chakki owners,” Mr Nawab asked.

He alleged that Mr Magsi was bent on destroying peaceful atmosphere of the city. “We are businessmen and we cannot fight back but we are not prepared to accept the shabby treatment being meted out to us by the Magsi force,” he and other chakki owners said.

They complained that chakki owners were also not allowed to sell one kg of flour to any consumer. The poor daily-wagers who had no money to purchase a bag of 10 kg had to buy one kg daily and there was no law forbidding them from selling one kg of flour, they maintained.

Admissions: Director admissions, University of Sindh Jamshoro on Tuesday announced the second merit list of quota-oriented, general disciplines (jurisdiction and upper Sindh), female quota, commerce quota; first merit list of sons/daughters of employees of the university and affiliated colleges and reserved seats for disabled persons.