HYDERABAD, Feb 7: Over 230 chakkis in Hyderabad remained shut on Thursday, the first day of a two-day strike being observed by their association in a protest over allocation of inadequate quota of wheat by the food department.

Amid unavailability of wheat flour in many parts of the city on Thursday, an official of the food department said that talks would be held with the striking chakki owners in order to address their grievances.

District food controller Masood Siddiqui told Dawn that he would recommend to the high-ups an increase in the quota for Hyderabad chakki owners.

He observed that the talks could be held on the next working day, i.e. Saturday. Hyderabad and other districts of the Sindh interior observe Friday as weekly holiday.

Regarding other grievances of chakki owners, he said all issues would be discussed with representatives of the chakki owners with a view to address them amicably.

He said the Sindh government had fixed the wheat four rate at Rs35.50 a kilogram in the open market but the official rate was not be observed in Hyderabad. As such, he said, under an arrangement flour was being offered to consumers at the official rate through mobile stalls. Around 2,000 10-kg flour bags were sold through 10 mobile stalls in Hyderabad on Thursday, he claimed.

He said the food department obtained the stock from mills in the city.

There are seven flour mills and 236 chakkis in the city. All the chakkis remained closed on Thursday in response to the two-day strike call given by the Atta Chakki Owners Social Welfare Association.

Mr Siddiqui said that 600-700 challans were issued by the district food department for the release of wheat to chakki owners on Thursday although they kept their business closed.

President of the association Mohammad Javaid Qureshi and joint general secretary Hanif Rajput said that the strike was a protest against the ‘step-motherly treatment’ being meted out to chakki owners by the food department.

They demanded restoration of Hyderabad’s quota of 100,000 wheat bags a month as had been allocated until Dec 2012 under the department’s liberal wheat distribution policy. They said they rejected the new policy introduced on Jan 1 under which the quota was reduced to 27,000 wheat bags a month.They also deplored that a 100-kg wheat bag was available in the open market at a rate as high as Rs3,350 on Thursday.

Although the food department offered the 100-kg bag at Rs,2800 to chakki owners, the quantity being allocated under the new policy was meagre and this was ultimately causing losses to chakki owners and creating an artificial shortage of wheat flour in the district, they said. Consumers were also being made to buy flour at Rs42-45 a kilogram, they added.