May 07, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1, 1429

TIMERGARA, May 6: The residents of Lower Dir fear flour crisis in the district.

Talking to Dawn here on Tuesday, they said that flour was in short supply to the local markets. The eight flourmills in the area were not being supplied with wheat by the government and the stock in the godowns had already finished.

Flourmills will stop working if they were not provided wheat, they said, wheat crops in the district had been affected due to untimely rain this year and per acre yield would be much low in the district.

The flourmill owners said that they were not receiving wheat quota as per government rules. They received 148 bags instead of 296 on May 5 while on the next day they reportedly did not receive even a single bag of wheat.

Meanwhile, residents of Kambat Samar Bagh alleged that wheat flour was being smuggled to Afghanistan via Shahi and Binshahi road while the border security forces kept their eyes closed. They demanded of the concerned authorities to take measures to stop flour smuggling.

District Coordination Officer Suhail Khan told Dawn that the provincial government had been contacted and it had promised to supply wheat to the district within a couple of days. He said there would be no flour crisis in the district once the supply to the flourmills started.