HARIPUR: Haripur is going to witness shortage of subsidised wheat flour from Tuesday (today) as the local millers on Monday decided not to lift the daily wheat quota from food department’s godowns in protest against alleged unbecoming behaviour of the assistant commissioner, headquarters.

In a letter to the district food controller, the flour mills association comprising 12 units said despite best efforts to ensure provision of subsidised flour to residents, they were being ‘harassed’ and fined heavily without any ‘justifiable’ reasons.

In the letter, the millers announced they would observe strike against AC headquarters Ms Labiqa Akram from Tuesday for an indefinite period.

The association’s president Faisal Mehmood told Dawn on contact the decision was taken against the ‘harassment’ and ‘unjustified’ fines on flour millers during last few days.

He said under the rules, administrative officers were bound to conduct visits to flour mills accompanied by food department officials, but additional assistant commissioners and assistant commissioner headquarters never bothered to follow rules.

He said many mill owners were fined from Rs50,000 to Rs100,000 for allegedly violating SOPs.

Mr Mehmood said his mills was fined for Rs100,000 for the only offence that a sale point owner could not lift his quota of 67 bags of 10kg flour as one of his family members had passed away, and he lifted his two-day quota the second day.

He accused Ms Akram of punishing millers for not acceding to her demand of contributing Rs300,000 each to the relief programme launched for the earthquake victims of Turkiye. He said each mill owner had already given Rs100,000 to the deputy commissioner in that regard.

Mr Mahmood said each flour mill used to lift 123 bags of 100kg of wheat daily from the food department’s godowns and each mills ground and supplied 861 bags of subsidised flour daily to the designated sale points.

When contacted, district food controller Shiraz Anwar confirmed the local millers had written to him expressing concerns about the attitude of district administration officials.

He, however, said he was trying to persuade the flour mill owners to revisit their decision.

Meanwhile, Ms Akram was not available for comments despite repeated calls and text messages on her mobile.

Additional deputy commissioner Imran Jadoon said the food department and his administration were in touch with flour mill owners to persuade them to call off their strike. He denied Ms Akram asked any mill owner to contribute for Turkiye relief fund.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2023