Flour crisis hits Rawalpindi, Islamabad yet again

Sources say shortage likely to persist for another week

RAWALPINDI:

Due to the persistent closure of all 144 flour mills, the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have been gripped by a fresh crisis of wheat flour.

Despite the Rawalpindi division commissioner, food secretary, and deputy commissioner’s intervention, the mills across the division could not be made operational on Thursday.

The shortage of wheat flour has pushed the price of the commodity beyond the poor man’s reach.

Flour mill owners have fixed the price of flour at Rs180 per kg. Meanwhile, in the open market, the price of an 80kg bag of red flour climbed to Rs13,500, fine flour Rs14,500, and the price of a bag of wheat flour with a more fine quality reached Rs14,850.

According to sources, the flour crisis is likely to continue for another week.

In a bid to control the situation,  authorities concerned had announced an allocation of 35 tonnes of wheat to each flour mill after detailed discussions with the leaders of the mills association and owners of the mills.

The high officials had also ordered to make the mills functional immediately.

Commenting on the situation, the spokesperson for the Flour Mills Association Raza Ahmad Shah told The Express Tribune that they need to procure the wheat from Bahawalnagar and the transportation cost of the commodity will further impact flour prices. He said the wheat quota allocated by the high officials in Rawalpindi has not yet been approved by the Bahawalnagar deputy commissioner.

As of now, the Bahawalnagar DC has not accepted the allocated quotas for other districts that were approved 10 days ago, he said.

The allocation is meaningless until Bahawalnagar DC accepts it, he added.

“During the talks, we asked the food secretary and commissioner to provide us with the first tranche of 100 bags of wheat each. This will make the closed mills functional till more wheat arrives from Bhawalpur.”

He further said our demand is not being accepted and no flour mill in the twin cities can be made operation until the wheat from Bahawalnagar arrives.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2023.