LAHORE, Jan 13: Experts have expressed their scepticism over deployment of Rangers to monitor flour supply chain, terming it a cosmetic measure and apprehending the step will neither benefit consumer, nor the market and millers.

According to the wheat watchers, the government was already over-administering flour markets with sale points under its direct control and sasta ata (cheap flour) stalls set up at Sunday Bazars under district administration and the provincial food department.

All these agencies and measures had failed to ease the market out for the simple reason that the commodity (wheat) is simply in short supply, they said and added no administrative measures had succeeded so far, nor would the induction of Rangers.

It would certainly make the government seen “doing something” about the crisis for the next few weeks, when imported wheat arrived to make the market easy, they said.

“Trouble with the flour market is short supply of wheat, which cannot be solved with such measures,” says Khaleeq Arshad - a miller from the city. Speculative pressure kept worsening the pressure, he added. “With administrative measures, the government was only redirecting the supplies, without realising that if it takes the supply to its sales own point, open market would quickly dry out. If its leaves a part of supply for open market, its sales points would become ineffective. One can hardly balance shortage of staple food, which is needed everywhere,” he claimed.

“The Punjab government was releasing over 21,000 tons a day and rightly claims that market should ease with such a huge supply,” says Rao Muhammad Akram - a flour trader from the city. “It (Punjab) also pleads its case with the federal government on the basis of these statistics, which, apparently, sound psychologically soothing. But, they are part of truth, not the entire truth. The Punjab releases would only help if other provinces were also releasing wheat according to their requirements, which has not been the case. The NWPF has been releasing only 25 per cent of its requirement and Sindh hardly 50 per cent. This situation keeps the Punjab draining beyond redemption. Even Punjab had been releasing over 24,000 tons in previous crisis situations, now it was sticking to 21,000 tons with a fear that if import is delayed for some time because of some unexpected reasons, it would go completely dry and country would plunge in social chaos. That is where the problem lies, but the official efforts sound like barking under the wrong tree, when it keeps adding administrative layers on supply mechanism, when supply is simply short,” he insisted.

Another crucial factor, which renders administrative measures totally ineffective, is open market being totally dry, says Muhammad Jawad - a utility store franchisee. “At present, the millers were not getting supply from open market, and were totally dependent upon Punjab Food Department. There are no flour stocks with shopkeepers as well, who normally keep a week’s stock. This new situation has robbed the flour market of any shock absorbing capacity. At present, the millers are getting wheat supplies on a daily basis, grinding them on hourly basis and supplying them on hourly basis as well. To make the matter worse, the supplies are short. The overtly squeezed supplies also force people procuring two to three times more than normal requirement with the fear that they may not get flour again in near future. All these factors make the situation worse. One must also realise that there was no administrative solution to this crisis. The only solution - import of wheat - has been delayed beyond reasonable limit, and now everyone is suffering,” he claimed.

Flour sale: Vehicles carrying 20-kilo bags of flour will sell the commodity at official price at all (150) union councils of the city from 8am to 8pm from Monday.

“Over 120,000 flour bags of 20-kilo each were available at the Sunday Bazaars and the special sale points in the city,” District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood told newsmen.

Flour was available in abundance all over Lahore and no one had to stand in a queue anywhere, he claimed. He said some 98,055 flour bags of 20-kilo each were sold in Lahore on Saturday.

Giving the break down, he said 18,478 bags were sold at the 52 special sale points, 14,850 bags in 50 union councils, and 1,000 bags each in the nine towns were sold. The figure was 55,727 in the open market, the Nazim added.