TOBA TEK SINGH, Sept 26: If one fails to buy flour from the only Sassta Bazaar, or cheap bazaar, in the Toba Tek Singh city, it means he will have to live without the staple food for 24 hours. The commodity is not available at any shop as traders fear action from government officials, Dawn has learnt.

Only 450 flour bags of 20 kilogramme each are supplied to the makeshift bazaar by the Food Department, which has been set up only for the month of fasting, Ramazan.

Early in the morning, a large number of floor-seekers queues up to buy the bag at government’s fixed price of Rs300. According to Market Committee officials who maintain the bazaar, said 450 bags were sold within an hour and 80 per cent people had to go without floor. Other shopkeepers do not sell the floor because, they say, it is impossible for them to sell the commodity at government’s prescribed rates. The irony is when the city is run short of floor, 15,000 flour bags are supplied to Lahore every day.

District Coordination Officer Chaudhry Muhammad Ashraf said the Punjab government could only provide a limited number of bags, which were supplied to Sassta Bazaar or Utility Stores.

People have demanded that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif take note of flour shortage.

AL-QUDS: An Al-Quds Day rally was brought out by the Imamia Students Organisation, which emerged from Central Imambargah on Jhang Road and concluded at Shuhada Chowk.

Participants chanted slogans against Israel and America.

THEFT ATTEMPT: Villagers foiled a theft attempt of wires from electricity poles in the Kamalia area on Thursday night. Villagers on a tip-off rushed to Moza Chah Shamoon Wala and saw some people cutting off cables. They resorted to aerial firing forcing the thieves to run away.

BODY FOUND: A body was found in a canal near Pirmahal. Police said a villager had informed police the body of a man was present in the canal near Chak 320-GB.