BY Dawn Report
SUKKUR, March 7: Owners closed over 50 flour mills and hundreds of 'chakkis' in the Sukkur, Larkana and Nawabshah areas for an indefinite period on Saturday to protest against inadequate wheat supply by the Sindh food department.

In Sukkur, owners of 36 flour mills handed over the keys of their mills to District Nazim Syed Nasir Hussain Shah who advised them not to take the extreme action which might worsen the flour crisis.

The Sindh Flour Mills Association, chairman, Muneer Memon, and vice-chairman, Aijaz Baloch, said the association extended cooperation to the Sindh food department but its secretary meted out step motherly treatment to the flour mill owners. They said that if Sindh chief minister intervened in the matter and took action against the food department, the mill owners could review their strategy.

NAWABSHAH: Flour mills of the district were closed on Saturday due to non-supply of wheat from the Sindh food department.

All the four flour mills - Indus Flour Mills, Qalandari Flour Mills, Iqbal Flour Mills, Sakrand, and Shah Latif Flour Mills, Daur, were closed by the owners and keys were handed over to the district government representatives in protest.

Talking to newsmen, Ghulam Mustafa and other mill owners said that the food department had not supplied wheat to mills even when there was adequate wheat in the stock.

They feared that hundreds of people would lose their jobs and an acute shortage of wheat flour would erupt in the district if the situation remained the same.

They alleged that flour mills of Sindh were closed after a conspiracy. They said each flour mill of Punjab was supplied 18,000 bags of wheat and their flour was supplied to Sindh.

MIRPURKHAS: On the call of flour mills of Sukkur region, all the flour mills of the district remained closed on Saturday in protest against the non-provision of wheat quota by the Sindh food department.

The food department had not provided wheat quota to the flour mills and chakkis for 20 days, despite having sufficient quantity of wheat in the godowns. As a result flour was sold in the market at the rate of Rs 14 to Rs15 per kg.

The Pakistan Flour Mills Association, Sindh chapter, vice- president, Sattar Chundija alleged that flour mills of Sindh had been closed due to wrong policies of the food department. He said a ban was imposed on the purchase of wheat from the private sector.

He said he had also informed the district Nazim in written about the persisting flour crisis and closure of flour mills. He said he requested him to take personal interest to resolve the artificial crisis created by the food department. He said at the time sufficient quantity of wheat was lying in the godowns of food department Mirpurkhas.

KHAIRPUR: There is an acute shortage of wheat and flour is being sold at Rs17 to Rs18 per kg in towns and villages of the district. The flour crisis had started two months back and deepened during the current month.

There are some 57 registered and 250 unregistered Atta chakkis, four mini flour mills and one flour mill in the district. The flour mill was closed some time back while 'chakkis' and mini flour mills in the district have also been closed.

The unavailability of wheat flour has compelled the people of the district to purchase rice flour which is being sold at Rs14 to Rs15 instead of its normal price of Rs8 to Rs9 per kg. With the closure of mills and chakkis many workers have also been left unemployed.

The DAWN