No wheat flour shortage in Punjab, says Aleem Khan

LAHORE:Punjab Senior Minister for Food Abdul Aleem Khan has said there is no shortage of wheat and flour anywhere in Punjab while day by day stability in availability of wheat and its prices is being observed.

He said this while chairing a departmental meeting in which Secretary Food presented latest position of imported wheat in Punjab. Abdul Aleem Khan said that wheat was being supplied to flour mills across Punjab on daily basis as per their requirement. He said that there is an abundance of low price flour in the Sahulat Bazaar as well. Similarly, flour bags of 20 and 10 kg are being provided in the open market as per the requirement of the citizens.

The senior minister asked the Food Department to ensure sufficient stock of wheat in the province till March/ April so that there should be no issue in this regard. Aleem Khan said that flour mills of Lahore, Gujranwala and Faisalabad are being provided imported wheat on priority while in Rawalpindi, Sialkot and Sargodha districts sufficient supply of wheat is also being ensured. He directed the Secretary Food to regularly monitor the supply of wheat from Attock, Bhakkar and Kashmor to other provinces.

He said from the next year new mechanism for wheat procurement should be prepared which can reduce the existing burden on the government while a competitive atmosphere could also be created in the open market.

In the meeting, Secretary Food Shehryar Sultan and Director Food Danish Afzal informed the minister that large scale operations have been launched against flour mills across the province for various irregularities. Moreover, the delivery has significantly reduced the prices of wheat and flour in the province.