Punjab Food Minister Abdul Aleem Khan on Tuesday has ruled out any shortage of wheat flour in the province.
In his statement, Aleem Khan said supply of flour across the province is being done at a controlled rate and added that there are sufficient stocks of wheat available with shopkeepers and there is no shortage. “The Punjab Food Department teams and district administration are alert in every district of the province.”
Abdul Aleem Khan said that Sindh has not yet started supply of wheat to flour mills at a subsidized rate and underlined the need for a unified flour rate in the provinces.
Earlier on July 6, Prime Minister Imran Khan had directed the authorities to ensure the availability of wheat at a reasonable price across the country.
Presiding over a high-level meeting, PM Imran had directed to ensure wheat’s obstacle free inter-province movement and had added that unhindered availability of the commodity was the top priority of the government.
The food minister said that supply of 20kg bag of flour at a controlled rate of Rs860 is going on successfully and there is no complaint of shortage anywhere in the province. He pointed out that the report of the Bureau of Statistics has made it clear that Punjab Province is providing flour to people at the lowest rates across the country, the Food and District Administration is on alert and there is an abundance of low price flour at shops.
The minister said that the Punjab flour mills are being made to abide by the rules and regulations but the supply of subsidized wheat to the flour mills in Sindh has not been started yet by the provincial Government. Different prices of flour create problems and some factions would buy low price wheat and flour from Punjab and sell it at an experience rate in other provinces.
He said that other provinces also have to take steps to keep the same price of flour so that citizens could get flour at the same rate across the country. The food minister said that on the directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan, strict monitoring is underway for the supply of low price flour in Punjab which has yielded positive results and now there are no rare complaints of non-availability of flour at controlled rates in the cities.
