QUETTA, Oct 19: The Balochistan food department has cancelled wheat quota of two flour mills found involved in illegal business and an FIR has been registered against a flour mill owner.

Sources told Dawn on Saturday that Chief Secretary Nasir Mehmood Khosa had acted on complaints about supply of substandard flour by millers to fair price shops in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan.

The food department is providing wheat to mills at government rate, but they are supplying substandard flour to people at official rate and selling fine quality atta in open market at exorbitant prices.

“Immediate action has been taken against two millers in Quetta for selling their wheat quota to other mill owners instead of supplying flour to government’s fair price shops,” an official of the food department said.

A meeting, chaired by the chief secretary on Friday, reviewed the situation and took decisions to ensure smooth supply of quality flour to people at official rates.

The sources said mill owners had been warned to bring flour to 35 points established by the food department or face strict action. The officials concerned were directed to cancel immediately wheat quota of mills found involved in supplying substandard flour.

Monitoring teams set up by the food department had been directed to check quality of flour being supplied by millers to fair price shops, the sources said.

Meanwhile, 12,000 bags of 20-kg flour had reached Quetta from Punjab in two days and another 47,000 bags were expected very soon, the sources said.

Under an agreement, the Punjab government would supply 1.1 million flour bags in one month at a price of Rs530 per 20 kg, a food department spokesman said. The sale of Punjab flour had started at sale points, he added.