CM orders food department to ensure flour is sold at Rs95 per kg

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed the food department to ensure the availability of flour at the general retail rate of Rs95 per kilogramme in the market and at the subsidised rate of Rs65/kg at special selling points in the province.

Shah issued the order during a meeting on wheat flour prices that he held on Wednesday after returning to Karachi in the morning from a donors’ conference in Geneva. The meeting was attended by Sindh Food Minister Mukesh Chawla, Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput, Principal Secretary to CM Fayaz Jatoi, Food Secretary Khurram Shahzad and the food director.

Chawla told the CM that his department was releasing 8,000 to 12,000 tonnes of wheat to flour mills daily. He said that there were sufficient wheat stocks to meet the province’s wheat requirements until the end of February.

The CM said that if the food department was releasing enough wheat, then why the retail price of flour was not being brought under control. He directed the food department to control the price and fix it at Rs95/kg in the retail market, and to keep providing subsidised flour at Rs65/kg at special selling points.

Giving details of the available stocks in the province, Chawla said that over 618,569 tonnes of wheat was available. He said that these stocks were enough to meet the province’s requirements until February’s end, while from the first week of March new crop would start pouring into the market, automatically bringing down the prices.

The CM directed the CS to further activate the district administrations for controlling the prices of not only flour but also other commodities such as vegetables, fruit, chicken, beef, mutton, eggs and pulses.

Haleem writes to CS

Sindh Assembly opposition leader Haleem Adil Sheikh has written to the chief secretary to inform him that the price of flour has jumped by Rs100 per kilogramme in the past eight months.

Sheikh, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader, said that the increase in the price of the commodity of basic necessity is putting immense pressure on the cost of living amid record inflation in the province.

The letter reads: “The flour prices in the province have scaled a new high of Rs3,000 per 20-kilogramme bag, with the soaring price of the essential commodity 1kg of flour now costing Rs160.

“The record increase in food prices, especially basic commodities, is the failure of the government. The PPP’s Sindh government has created an artificial price hike in the province by not releasing wheat stock to the flour mills, and the district administration too is not taking any action against profiteers.”

Sheikh said that recently, a tragic incident took place in the Mirpurkhas district, where a person died due to a stampede while trying to buy subsidised flour. The heart-wrenching incident comes as the prices of flour continue to soar in the market, making it difficult for the poor people to make both ends meet, he added.

“Even now, wheat flour is being sold at Rs160 per kg in every market of Sindh. The stalls set up by the Sindh government have proven themselves to be a failure, as is evident from the Mirpurkhas incident.”

He said the government is humiliating the less privileged in the name of providing cheap flour, and buying flour has become a big problem like fighting a war: there are lines of thousands of people behind a single truck.

Therefore, he added, it is apparent that the Sindh government’s price control department and the deputy commissioner of every district of Sindh have failed to control the rising prices of food items.

“Being the leader of the opposition in the Provincial Assembly of Sindh, it is my responsibility to highlight the general public issue, and it is your responsibility as the chief secretary of Sindh to take effective measures to ensure that basic necessities such as flour are delivered to people at reasonable prices at the soonest.

“It is the basic right of the people of Sindh to be able to buy flour without any inconvenience, and strict action should be taken against anyone who tries to take this right away from the people.”