New app to tighten ‘hi-tech’ noose around flour mills

Food dept will be able to completely monitor wheat inventory at flour mills

LAHORE: In order to discourage hoarding and overcome the worsening wheat crisis, the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) has developed a new application to help the food department monitor supply and distribution of the commodity to the flour mills.

The Punjab Food Department will provide access of this app to all the flour mills across the province. The release of wheat will be monitored in through the app in the future. The app will be launched after approval from the Punjab chief secretary.

Around 800 flour mills will have access to this software and through this app, flour mill owners will be able to keep a record of the release of wheat by the government. The flour mills will also be responsible to keep a record of the quota of what they received from the government warehouses. They will also have to keep a record of the quantity of wheat grounded into wheat and where did they supply the same. The food department officials, commissioners and deputy commissioners will be able to check all the information through this app.

Food Department Secretary Waqas Ali Mehmood said Punjab was the first province that has introduced this app.

“The government’s target is to produce 60% flour from the wheat supplied to the flour mills,” he said, adding that flour mills would not be able to manipulate the record on the app and all the work would be done according to the rules.

He said through this app they would also be able to figure out the quality and quantity of the flour mills, their efficiency and how much quota they should be given in the future.

Mehmood added that the app would also provide information about the names of the flour mills supplying flour across Punjab and the information would be updated regularly.

The sources said the food department would ensure that all the flour mills keep the app updated and provide information to the relevant departments.

The food department secretary said the new app would help the authorities to formulate a comprehensive strategy to tackle the wheat crisis in a better way. He said a lot of research work has been done on this app and the flour mills violating the laws would be dealt with accordingly.

The sources said the flour mills selling wheat in the black market would be immediately identified through this app.

“No official wheat quota would be used to manipulate the market. Initially, this project will be initiated for the flour mills in Lahore and the suburbs after which the software will be introduced in flour mills across the province,” he said.

“It (the app) will be regularly monitored and used to discourage the misuse of the official quota of wheat. According to the food department, currently, wheat was provided to all registered flour mills, but it was not strictly monitored. Neither has it been estimated as to how much wheat was supplied and how much flour was made out of that wheat.

He said the details have been discussed with the flour mills and they have agreed to use the app and update the inventory regularly.

The food department said the demand and consumption of wheat in the province has surged to 25,000 tonnes daily from 19,000 tonnes in just two years.

The use of information technology would help the government in many ways including improvement in demand and supply besides making the process of distribution of wheat to the flour mills transparent.