There was no shortage of flour across the Multan division as 4.4 million bags of wheat stock was available which is sufficient, said a food department official.
Deputy Director Food Asif Raza while talking to APP here on Wednesday said that the ample stock of wheat was available as the depart-ment had procured 704796 metric tons of wheat across the division last year.
He said that the flour was being sold at government rates through 1700 shops and sales points across the division. The government rate for 10 kilograms flour bag was Rs 648 while a 20-kg bag was avail-able for Rs 1296.
He informed that about 70,000 bags of 10 kg and 10,000 bags of 20 kg were sold daily across the division. Deputy Director said that strict monitoring of flour points was being ensured to make the provision of cheaper flour to deserving people transparently.
The department also took stern action over com-plaints about mall practices. Mr. Asif maintained that 111 flour mills and 860 bodies were registered with the department for wheat quota as 1348 metric tons of wheat was provided to them on daily basis. To a question about steps to prevent wheat smug-gling, the official said that 34 check posts have been established at entrance and exit points to control the wheat smuggling.
He said that they had seized about 4550 bags during major raids at Head Muhammad Wala Multan, Jalalpur interchange, and Lodhran during the last month. Likewise, show cause notices were served to 85 flour mills, the wheat quota of 12 mills, and li-censes of four flour mills were suspended while a Rs 1.5 million fine was imposed over the misappro-priation of government flour during above said pe-riod. Saving of 28000 wheat bags of 100 kilograms was also made during this period, Deputy Director concluded.
