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5 times more flour mills working in Punjab

LAHORE: Five times more flour mills are working than actual wheat grinding requirement in the Punjab thus exploiting for obtaining the wheat quota at subsidised rate and government is bearing a burden of subsidy amounting to Rs. 20 million daily.

Punjab Food Secretary Junaid Iqbal told APP here on Sunday that 437 flour mills with a total grinding capacity of 58,456 tonnes per day have been getting wheat quota at subsidised rate from the government since last year and 77 more flour mills have been added so far raising a total number of 514 mills which are five times more than the actual requirement of the people of the province.

He said under prevalent rules and regulation, the government is not bound to release quota to all flour mills and government always releases wheat quota according to requirement of urban population and not to meet the individual demands of the mills.

He said mushroom growth of flour mills forced the government to ban the further establishment and expansion of flour mills in the province with immediate effect.

Junaid Iqbal said that under the Food Stuff Control Act 1958, the mills are bound to follow the rate fixed by the government. He said the government has not issued any revise notification in connection with the increase in the price of Atta. APP