LAHORE, Feb 27: The flour situation started easing on Friday as the food department, millers and the district government swung into action following a directive of the chief minister.

The food department on Friday served show-cause notices on three flour mills and cancelled their wheat quota for sending flour out of the city while the city government claimed to have conducted 313 raids during the last five days, lodging 115 complaints and arresting 51 profiteers.

The quota of three mills would be distributed among the other operational mills. The district government has also convened a meeting with millers on Saturday (today) to review the situation.

Commenting on the news, an irate consumer said it was evident that dealers and retailers were trying to exploit the situation. Both fell under the district government. But, it took chief minister's annoyance to force the district government into action, he said. The new set-up seems to be devoid of any mechanism for crisis management, he added.

"The seriousness shown by the chief minister at Thursday meeting drove the point home," claimed an official of the food department. Teams of department officials and millers had been conducting raids for the last many days, but they did not get the desired results. Once the chief minister took note of the situation, everybody fell in line, he claimed.

According to departmental calculations, the daily urban consumption is only 11,500 tons. The department is releasing 20,000 tons daily, almost 80 per cent more than the consumption. On this basis, prima facie, there should not be any crisis.

However, there is a possibility that growers might have sold the extra wheat because of high prices and were now purchasing flour from the open market. But, this alone would not have led to a crises.

Massive flour haemorrhage to other provinces triggered the crunch as dealers and millers outside departmental jurisdiction started fleecing people.

The district government should have heeded early warnings by the department and got into action. They took time to realise the magnitude of situation. The damage had already been done by the time they did get into action.

According to an official of the Pakistan Flour Millers Association (PFMA), around 2,500 tons of flour was going out of province because of higher prices. The price of a 20kg bag is hovering around Rs275 in NWFP and Rs300 in Karachi.

It is a big incentive in the absence of an inter-provincial ban on flour movement. But, millers' leaders have made individual owners realise that the government could go to any extreme to redress the problem and they must not create problems for themselves, he said.