KARACHI, April 2: The Sindh food minister said on Tuesday that the flour mills association had agreed to reduce the per kilogram price of wheat flour by Rs2.

Speaking at a press conference, food minister Iqbal Dawood Pakwala said that he along with agriculture minister Dr N K Luhana had a meeting with caretaker Chief Minister Zahid Kurban Alavi and formulated a policy of wheat procurement.

In the meeting, he said, the CM emphasised the need for providing maximum relief to the people during the interim period.

He said that the government decided to give a priority to small growers in distribution of bardana.

He appealed to small landholders that instead of disposing wheat in Rs200 or Rs300 less than the government procurement rate of Rs1,200 per maund, they should wait for two to three days as steps were being taken to make bardana available from Friday.

He said that a meeting of all divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners had been summoned by the chief minister on Wednesday where besides briefing about the wheat procurement policy instruction would be issued to them to ensure conduction of fee, fair and on time elections.

Mr Pakwala also said that the CM also formed a committee that would ensure that bardana be made available.

He also said that this year wheat target was 13 million tonnes, as there was a bumper crop.

In reply to a question, he said that it was a worldwide practice that whenever there was a bumper crop the prices reduced. However, in Karachi it was not possible because there was no wheat production and the government would not allow private sector to bring wheat from interior of Sindh to the city.On the occasion, chairman of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association Chaudhry Ansar Javed said that the minister, who is originally a businessman, was aware of their problems and had assured the association of his full cooperation to root out corruption.

He said that upon his assurance the association decided to cut down flour price by Rs2 per kg and now the wheat flour would be available in the open market at Rs34 a kilo.