BAHAWALPUR: People are facing inconvenience in purchasing subsidised wheat flour from the sale points set up by a number of flour mills in the city and across the district.

According to the consumers, including Ahmed Khan and Anwar Khan, they were asked to stand in the long queues at various flour points for hours. During the wait, they alleged, the salesmen deliberately delayed the delivery of the flour on the pretext of completion of formalities like registration of the CNIC numbers.

They went to other flour sales points in the city, hoping to get flour bags easily there but it was the same situation and they returned to their homes empty-handed.

The consumers alleged that the quantity of subsidised flour being supplied by the flour mills at the sale points was not in accordance with the fixed quota and the requirement of the consumers. They demanded an increase in the daily quota of the subsidised flour bags as well as in the number of the sale points in the city.

However, the officials of the food department claimed that the local flour mills were given a quota of 14,170 maunds of wheat daily for the supply of 40,000 subsidized flour bags in the district.

Deputy Director Food Adnan Farid said the fixed quantity of subsidised flour was being provided regularly at the sale points. However, he added, there were some individual complaints, which were being addressed by the field staff.

SCHOLARSHIPS: The Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB) distributed scholarships worth Rs800,000 among the students belonging to Balochistan.

The scholarships were distributed by IUB registrar Prof Dr Moazim. He said the scholarships were given under the financial crisis scheme launched by the IUB with its own resources for the deserving Baloch students who, until now, had been given scholarships worth Rs36m.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2023