Faisalabad flour mills warn of flour crisis over alleged wheat seizure

Faisalabad: It has been revealed that the staff of the Food Department, Faisalabad, have forcibly lifted wheat lying in the godowns of flour mills and given it to private companies. As a result, there is a fear of a flour crisis in the district, while due to the reduced area under wheat cultivation in Faisalabad, this district is already officially included in the “deficit area”.

The annual wheat procurement in Faisalabad district has just been completed, but at the same time, the staff of the Food Department, Faisalabad, have allegedly exceeded their authority and started forcibly lifting wheat lying in the godowns of flour mills and giving it to a private company. On which the owners of the flour mills are protesting and they have made it clear that such steps by the Food Department may create a fear of a flour crisis in the entire district.

In this regard, Chairman of Faisalabad Flour Mills Association Chaudhry Shafiq Anjum has said that the wheat reserves available with the flour mills are declared by the administration and in accordance with the law, which are necessary to maintain the supply of flour in the market, but the food department is exceeding its powers to benefit private companies. The Chairman of the Flour Mills Association has appealed to Commissioner Faisalabad Mussrat Jabeen and Deputy Commissioner Nadeem Nasir to take notice of the situation and play an immediate role before a flour crisis arises in Faisalabad. He said that if a flour crisis arises in the district, there is a fear that there will be a law-and-order problem due to queues at shops, fighting and fighting for flour like in the past, which will ease the administration and the government, so this problem should be resolved immediately.

Chaudhry Shafiq Anjum further said that due to better coordination between the administration and flour mills in Faisalabad, a flour crisis did not arise even when there was a flour crisis in the whole country. He clarified that due to the low area under wheat cultivation in Faisalabad, the district is already officially included in the “deficit area” like Rawalpindi.

The Chairman Flour Mills Association further said that the wheat production in Faisalabad is less than the required requirement because, apart from the district’s population of more than 8 million, the flour consumed by millions of workers from other districts who are living here to earn a living is not included in any official estimate.