Senior Minister for Food Abdul Aleem Khan has said that ghost flour mills will be closed across Punjab and they will not get official quota of wheat from Food Department. He said that strict action would be taken against those mills which were only getting wheat quota from government and not working properly.
These views were expressed by Senior Minister for Food Punjab Abdul Aleem Khan while talking to an 11-member delegation of Progressive Group of flour mills which included owners of different flour mills of Punjab. Provincial Minister Mian Khalid Mahmood was also present on this occasion.
Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan said that the Food Department has been directed to adopt a pragmatic policy in which better mechanisms for distribution of wheat to flour mills would be introduced and existing policies would be upgraded.
Aleem Khan said that the Food Department is an important task given by Prime Minister Imran Khan which will be fulfilled one hundred percent. He expressed satisfaction over the fact that wheat production in Punjab is expected to be higher than the target this year and wheat procurement drive is going on satisfactorily.
He said that the there is no fear of any shortage of flour anywhere in the province.
He appealed to the flour mills owners to come forward considering this sector as a mission and identify the culprits of artificial scarcity and hoarding. In his conversation, he further said that strict action is being taken against wheat hoarding in Punjab like the rest of the country under the new ordinance.
The illegal warehouses have been sealed off in Dera Ghazi Khan where 30 thousand wheat bags have been recovered. Abdul Aleem Khan stressed that smuggling and hoarding would not be tolerated under any circumstances.
He said that besides the Food Department, intelligence agencies have also been called in to help in cracking down on this mafia. He listened carefully to the demands of progressive flour mills and assured them of a solution.
Among the meeting participants were owners of various flour mills Mian Muhammad Shafiq, Mian Khaliq Arshad, Majid Abdullah, Sheikh Fayyaz Ahmed and Khurram Shehzad who suggested that they have reservations about wheat subsidy and quota being given to flour mills which should be rationalized.
Sajid Abdullah, Umair Shehzad, Haji Zaheer Ahmed, Farrukh Shehzad, Zoreez Maqsood and Wajid Abdullah were also among those who called on him. The delegation congratulated Senior Punjab Minister Abdul Aleem Khan on assuming the post of Senior Minister in Punjab and assured him of all possible cooperation and expressed satisfaction over the remarks made by him.
