KHAIRPUR, Oct 18: Despite repeated government assurance, wheat flour is being sold at Rs32 to Rs35 per kg in Khairpur city and other parts of the district reportedly due to a reduction in chakki owners’ wheat quota.

Talking to the newsmen here on Saturday, the office-bearers of Chakki Owners Association, Ghulam Qadir Soomro, and Tejo mal, said that during the current month, the food department had reduced the wheat quota of the chakki owners by 50 per cent.

They said that there were about 82 registered chakkis in Khairpur, which were getting 50 per cent less wheat quota.

When contacted on the telephone, Kiryana Merchant Association president Haji Yar Mohammad Shaikh said that if the wheat quota released to the chakki owners and flour mills was increased, prices of wheat flour might be brought down up to Rs20 per kg.

He said that they discussed this situation in the meeting with the district administration but no result could be achieved from such discussions.

Amjad Lashari of the United Labour Union said that a common man faced problems due to such a situation and said that according to his information and feedback received from labourers and peasants, wheat flour was being sold at Rs35 per kg in the rural areas.

Comrade Shahbaz Dino said that he was one of the labourers who purchased wheat flour daily and it was not only in the rural areas but he himself purchased wheat flour at Rs35 per kg in Khairpur city on Friday. He said that wheat flour crisis was getting worse.

Anjuman-i-Tajiran Khairpur president Qutbuddin Shaikh said that the fact was that wheat quota was released by the food department but wheat flour was not supplied to the markets after grinding and until it was not brought to the markets the crisis could not end.