A worst flour crisis has hit the entire desert district for the past few days after most the flour mills were shut down by their owners after failing to procure the required grains from the local functionaries of the food department.
Dileep Kumar and other millers when contacted told this scribe on Friday that local functionaries of food department were not supplying the wheat as per their required indents and thus they were forced to close down their mills across the district adding he said that they were not allowed to purchase the wheat grains from the nearby districts and were only allowed to procure the grains from far flung districts due to which they had to pay extra money. The millers said that more than 150 registered mills in the desert district needed at least 100 bags per day of the wheat daily to cater to the needs of the inhabitants but the officials were not ready to provide the required stock of the grains to them.
The millers deplored that they were not allowed to procure and purchase the grains under the ‘liberal policy’ and were instead asked to buy the wheat from far flung areas of districts -and thus they had been left no other options but to charge the same rates from the consumers to avoid the losses. Akbar Dars-and other activists, who have been protesting against the worst crises talking to the local journalists deplored that functionaries remained unmoved despite their potest to provide the required quantity of wheat grains to the millers.
“We are forced to purchase the flour at Rs 70 to 80 per 1 kg from the retailers after millers shut down their mills in most parts of the districts” they added. They alleged that high-ups of Sindh should take strong immediate notice of such worst crises in the desert district otherwise they would take to the streets. They requested Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah and others to take strong notice of the worst situation and order the provincial food minister and other high-ups to encamp un Mithi to supervise the wheat distribution among the millers of the district. The local shopkeepers when contacted told this reporter that they were purchasing the flour from other districts and thus were left with no other option but to sell at the higher rates to avoid the losses.
Chandar Kumar, the district food officer, when contacted, told this scribe that they had been directed by their high-ups to stop supplying the food grains to millers till the further orders at the rate fixed (Rs 41 per 1 kg in Thar) earlier after MPA Rana Hamir Singh, who is also the chairman of the standing committee in Sindh Assembly on food department had ordered the officials to supply the grains to over 150 millers operating in the desert district.
