Senior Punjab Minister Abdul Aleem Khan has said that ghost flour mills will be closed across Punjab and they will not get an official quota of wheat from the Food Department.
He said that strict action would be taken against those mills which were only getting wheat quota from the government and not working properly. He said this while talking to an 11-Member delegation of Progressive Group of Flour Mills which included owners of different flour mills of Punjab. Provincial Minister Mian Khalid Mahmood was also present on this occasion.
Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan said that the Food Department has been directed to adopt a pragmatic policy in which better mechanisms for distribution of wheat to flour mills would be introduced and existing policies would be upgraded. He expressed satisfaction that wheat production in Punjab is expected to be higher than the target this year and wheat procurement drive is going on satisfactorily. Abdul Aleem Khan said that there is no fear of any shortage of flour anywhere in the province.
He appealed to the flour mills owners to come forward considering this sector as a mission and identify the culprits of artificial scarcity and hoarding. He further said that strict action is being taken against wheat hoarding in Punjab like the rest of the country under the new ordinance. The illegal warehouses have been sealed in Dera Ghazi Khan where 30 thousand wheat bags have been recovered.
Khan stressed that smuggling and hoarding would not be tolerated under any circumstances. He said that besides the Food Department, intelligence agencies have also been called in to help in cracking down on this mafia. He listened carefully to the demands of Progressive Flour Mills and assured them of a solution. Among the meeting participants were Mian Muhammad Shafiq, Mian Khaliq Arshad, Majid Abdullah, Sheikh Fayyaz Ahmed and Khurram Shehzad who suggested that they have reservations about wheat subsidy and quota being given to flour mills which should be rationalized.
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