FAISALABAD, Sept 23: Locals have been compelled to purchase substandard flour at Ramazan Bazaars and other markets owing to district government’s alleged indifference to clamp down on adulterators and profiteers, Dawn learned on Tuesday.

The district government has set up several Ramzan Bazaars in different localities to ensure availability of cheap yet quality flour to the masses and the price of a 20-kilogramme bag has been fixed at Rs290 at makeshift bazaars while Rs300 in the open market.

However, no concerted effort by government functionaries is being witnessed to improve the situation.

Zaibun Nisa, a Tuesday Bazaar shopper, told Dawn that people had been compelled to purchase low-quality flour on exorbitant prices owing to absence of any check on adulterators and profiteers.

She said that officials were merely raising hollow slogans instead of launching any crackdown on culprits involved in adulteration and profiteering.

She said shopkeepers responded aggressively to those buyers who complained about the poor quality of foodstuff and instead of improving their stuff, they urged the purchasers to shop from any other outlet.

She said that millers were mixing bran in flour without any hindrance, challenging all government claims of ensuring supply of quality flour to the masses.

Mohammad Afzal, who was on a shopping spree in Sadar Bazaar, said that it was appalling that citizens of an agricultural country had been compelled to consume adulterated flour.

A district government official said the administration had warned the owners of flour mills that stern action would be taken if any of them supplied substandard flour to the masses. He said that District Coordination Officer Saeed Wahla issued the above warning during a meeting held in this connection.

“The government will not compromise on quality of foodstuff being supplied to the masses and violators will be taken to task,” the official quoted the DCO as saying.

He said that officials who participated in the meeting were asked to check the quality of flour on a regular basis and no culprit should be spared anymore.

Sources said that Flour Millers’ Association chairman Aqeel Ahmed asked DCO that complaints about the quality of the commodity were merely because of the burden the millers were facing in meeting the Ramzan Package targets. However, he said the millers had been trying to maintain quality.

District Food Controller Rana Khudadad Khan said that his department had collected 146 samples of flour during last three months and sent them for examination. However, he said, the department was still waiting for the laboratory test reports.

He said 27 cases of adulteration, including selling of substandard flour, were being tried at different courts.