Amid rising inflation and food crisis in Pakistan, local flour mills in Balochistan's Chitral have stopped releasing the subsidised wheat flour, demanding a hike in the price of the essential commodity.
The local residents have resented the non-availability of subsidised wheat flour in the bazaars as the local flour mills have stopped releasing the commodity over price issue, the Dawn reported.
Local customers told Dawn that they were getting the wheat flour ground by the local mills at Rs 2,200 per 40-kilogramme bag, but were now forced to purchase flour brought from other parts of the country at Rs 2,600 per 40kg bag.
Bashir Hussain Azad, a resident of Zargarandeh village, said that the local mills had stopped releasing the flour to the market for the last two weeks, demanding a hike in the price, reported Dawn.
He said the district administration had neither accepted the demand of the mill owner nor turned it down, with the result that the supply had been halted to the market.
The consumers said they were getting the wheat flour ground by the local mills at Rs 2,200 per 40-kilogramme bag, but were now forced to purchase flour brought from other parts of the country at Rs 2,600 per 40kg bag, reported Dawn.
Meanwhile, Dwan report said Arshad Hussain, District Food Controller of Lower Chitral, supported the demand of the mill owner and said that they were right in demand for raise in the flour price.
He said the local mills could not be treated like the mills in other parts of the country where only 60 per cent of fine quality flour was extracted from wheat, while in Chitral the ratio was 80 per cent, thus making the commodity costlier in the district, the Pakistani publication said.
The food controller said after rationalisation of the price based on the local conditions, he had sent his recommendations to the assistant commissioner for onward submission to the deputy commissioner for final notification.
Lower Chitral Deputy Commissioner Hasan Abid told Dawn that fixing the price of flour was beyond his authority, and he could only implement the prices fixed by the food department, reported Dawn.
He said he could cancel the licence of the mills if its owner did not accept the price fixed by the food department.
( With inputs from ANI )
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