ISLAMABAD, Feb 8: The Federal Food Committee (FFC) has named the owners of a dozen flour mills who, it says, precipitated the flour crisis in the twin cities by not lifting their quota of wheat from government stocks to squeeze the supply of atta.
Their names have been disclosed on public demands almost a month after President Pervez Musharraf constituted the FFC to overcome the atta crisis and streamline the supply of the basic staple.
FFC sources said the government had stopped supplying wheat to a number of flour mills in Rawalpindi and Islamabad after they failed to reply properly to show-cause notices served on them for not lifting their quotas.
Four mills located in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) were listed as ones which did not increase their daily grinding despite the fact that the government had augmented wheat supplies to them from its godowns on less than half of the market prices.
The mills are Sarwar Flour Mills owned by Haji Mohammad Akram; Mukhtar Flour Mills belonging to Fahah Farooq; New Arshad Flour Mills of Haji Nadeem Ahmed; and New Alhilal owned by Mohammad Faisal.
Eight mills operating in Rawalpindi also failed to follow the rules including Al-Wahab Flour Mills owned by Chaudhry Nisar Ali; Punjab Flour Mills of Main Mohammad Iqbal; Naseer Flour Mills of Hassenuddin; Saghar Flour Mills of Haji Mohammed Akram; Hasmic Flour Mills of Shah Asim, Jan & Jan Flour Mills owned by Mohammad Zia Khan; Ghani Flour Mills of Irfan Ghani; Potohar Flour Mills of Mohammad Aslam; Hakeem Flour Mills of Makhdoom Ashraf; Ayesha Flour Mills of Chaudhry Javed; and Luqman Flour Mills of Liaqat Ali.
The FFC is also pressing mills in the Punjab to bring down ex-factory price of flour further from the present Rs280 per 20kg as 100 per cent of wheat these mills grind come from the government godowns.
According to the rules, the government only provides 70 per cent of the wheat daily grinded by mills, while the rest come from the private stocks of the mill owners.
However, the government increased wheat quota to mills across the country, including the Punjab and the federal capital, in order to plug the gap between demand and supply.
Now, mills are not grinding from their own stocks and totally relying on the government’s wheat. So, naturally, the flour price must further come down in the coming days. And, the FFC is demanding this.
A total of 43 mills operate in the federal capital, all of which are located in Sector I-9 and I-11 in clusters. A similar number of mills operate in Rawalpindi. Most of these mills could be found in Westridge, Sihala and adjacent areas.
The Punjab government has allocated 47,000 bags of 100kg each daily to these mills for daily grinding. But, mills have so far failed to lift their full quota on the pretext that they are not finding enough consumers.
On daily basis, mills in the twin cities grind 3,000 to 5,000 bags less than the quota allotted to them.
Deputy Director Food, Rawalpindi, Rashid Razi told Dawn that supplies in the twin cities had already been streamlined and prices were going down gradually. The crisis, he said, was over and now the district administration was trying its best to sustain supplies.
On the directives of the FFC, the Food Department has started negotiations with some 61 unregistered private wheat grinding units (Chakkis) in the twin cities asking them to register themselves in order to get their share in the Punjab’s wheat quota.
If these Chakkis are regulated, they would start getting wheat from the government on cheaper rates. This can help in bringing down prices of the Chakki atta.