Growers organizations, flour millers and other stakeholders have lodged strong protest over undue seizure and impounding of vehicles and godowns of wheat owned by licensee grain dealers and urged the Food department to stop this injustice as it will not help to meet its procurement target and deprive the farmers financially and consumers of flour.
Punjab Water Council (PWF) Convener and Progressive Farmer Farooq Bajwa said the department has recently issued an order for monitoring the implementation of mandatory conditions of food grain licenses. Nevertheless, officials of the food department are stopping the vehicles of flour millers, licensee grain dealers and others causing panic among all the stakeholders of grain businesses.
Bajwa claimed the department showing its traditional negligence delayed the procurement of wheat. In the meantime, private sector which used to invest in growers had lifted the grain from the fields. He claimed that 65-70 percent of wheat in Southern Punjab had sold out while the department waited for lowering moisture in the crop. He said produce is far more high than what is the buying target of department. If the private sector is harassed and discouraged like this, who would buy the rest of the grains, he wondered.
Bajwa claimed that according to the letter issued by the food department, all the deputy directors food and district food controllers have been asked to make efforts to unearth mafia which is indulged in wheat business including the middle man and the transporters who are facilitating the illegal transportation of wheat out of the province.
The letter also asked to bound all the license holder grain merchants to report in writing about their stocks being purchased and stored by them on the prescribed periodical appendixes with properly mentioning the location of all their storage points.
Nevertheless, Bajwa claimed that the food department, which is now finding it hard to meet its procurement target, is raiding the storages of those who are valid license holders.
Bajwa said he along with Kissan Board Pakistan's Central leader Shaukat Chaddhar also met the provincial food secretary on Tuesday asking him to stop this undue harassment which would only result in damage to the growers.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA-Punjab) Habib ur Rehman Leghari also lodged a complaint with the food department in a meeting with the provincial secretary food that vehicles carrying wheat of the millers were also being impounded by the officials. He said if this is not stopped people will not have flour during the sacred month of Ramzan.
During the meeting, he said the vehicles having good grain license copies with them should not be stopped, especially those coming with wheat from Sindh.
Secretary Food Punjab Nasim Sadiq assured Leghari that millers' vehicles would not be stopped so that wheat could reach the mills easily and there in no disturbance in smooth supply of flour bags in Ramzan bazar.
Leghari again made it clear that if this impounding continued it would hamper the supply of flour in the province. He also asked the flour millers to fully take part in the procurement campaign of the department to make it a success.