Govt’s subsidised flour drive marred with challenges

Given the exorbitant prices of flour, the ‘sasta atta’ drive was launched by the Sindh government to provide flour for cheaper rates but so far the drive has either resulted in stampedes or it has been hijacked by local shop owners.

The double-digit inflation has made life so miserable for the masses that now they have to line up in queues for subsidised flours but even the queues come with their own challenges. Recently, a worker named Harsingh Kolhi perished in Mirpurkhas due to a stampede during the government sponsored flour distribution drive and 3 women were wounded in a similar incident in Sakrand, Benazirabad.

The other challenge, apart from stampedes, is theft. A few days earlier in Sachal Goth, a couple of individuals deprived the numerous individuals waiting in line by stealing the entire stock of flour from the truck distributing the flour. The incident resulted in the temporary suspension of cheap flour sales in the area.

Ashiq Tunio, a government official appointed to supervise the sale of flour in sub-division Gulzar Hijri, talking about the incident, said, “now the administration has asked the local police to offer security.”

Apart from security concerns, the administration’s request has come at a time when the flour queues have started causing traffic jams and minor squabbles amongst those waiting in line.

Part of the reason why squabbles are becoming frequent in the flour queues is because local shop owners have started buying the cheap flour as well. Bushra, a woman who was waiting in a line formed outside the Karachi Press Club to get a sack of flour, said that local store owners had made their ordeal even worse. “We have been waiting in line for a while now and shop owners are purchasing large quantities of flour. By the time our turn comes, there will be no flour left to distribute. The government should restrict the shops from purchasing flour meant for the general public,” said an irate Bushra.

According to Chaudhry, an officer in charge of flour distribution in the Jamshed Quarters sub-division, complaints of shop owners purchasing subsidised flour are increasing because there is no limit on the number of sacks one individual can purchase. “Therefore, the shop owners buy large quantities from the trucks and then sell it at exorbitant rates,” the officer regretted. Mukesh Kumar Chawla, the provincial Minister for Food, when told about the plight of people trying to purchase cheap flour, said that the department had recently increased the quota of wheat available for flour mills and this would result in a decline in flour prices in the open market. Vice Chairman of All Pakistan Flour Mills Association, Chaudhry Aamir Abdullah, concurring with the Minister’s assessment, said that the government’s initiative would help the people. “The wheat quota for Karachi’s flour mills has gone up from 97,000 tonnes to 125,000 tonnes, which will result in a drop in flour prices,” Abdullah explained, while talking to The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2023.