Gilgit Baltistan

Caught in the crossfire: Flour shortage prompts closure of tandoors

Standoff between the government and mill owners leaves locals at a loss.

Shabbir Mir October 06, 2013

Tandoor owners said they are being asked to lower prices of roti from Rs10 to Rs7, but complained flour is not being sold at the rate previously decided.

GILGIT:

An acute flour shortage triggered by a standoff over prices between the government and mill owners has led to the closure of tandoors in Gilgit.

The shortage has affected restaurants and residents as neither flour nor roti is available in the town for the past week. At least 100 tandoors have been shut and the supply of flour to shops remains suspended.

“There is no flour available in the town, which is why we are forced to close our businesses,” a tandoor shop owner, Nisar Sultan, said
on Saturday.

He added the government had assured them of providing flour a week earlier, but nothing has materialised so far. About 1,000 people have become jobless since the tussle between the government and producers began, he claimed.

Tandoor owners said they are being asked to lower prices of roti from Rs10 to Rs7, but complained flour is not being sold at the rate previously decided.

In a bid to make the supply of wheat distribution transparent and free from corruption, authorities replaced the ‘dealer system’ with ‘sales points’ a couple of months ago. However, the new mechanism failed to deliver the expected outcome and the town has witnessed two shortage crises since then.

The current stalemate, however, occurred after mill owners stopped crushing grain in protest over the government’s decision to decrease the wheat quota. “Our quota has been curtailed from 726 bags to 192 bags,” said mill owner Nasir Mir. “We are also being asked to decrease at least Rs10 on a 40-kilogramme bag,” he explained.

Senior minister Mohammad Jaffer is convinced the issue will soon be set aside. “Mill owners are trying to blackmail us,” he had told journalists on Friday.

The Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) government rejected the federal government’s plea to raise wheat prices in the region, Jaffer added, claiming grain is being provided to G-B on subsidised rates.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2013.