KARACHI, Dec 14: A large number of the poor and lower-middle class people living in main city areas could not get wheat flour at Rs160 per 10kg bag as majority of the stalls set up by flour millers are located in the industrial areas of Korangi, Site, Malir, Sohrab Goth and Super Highway.

People residing in main residential and commercial areas of Karachi had to rely on utility stores or retail stores for the purchase of wheat flour as there was hardly any stall set up in these areas.

In a meeting with a delegation of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association on Thursday, the caretaker provincial minister for food, Aijaz Ali Shah Shirazi, had announced setting up of 142 stalls in the city where wheat flour would be available at Rs160 per 10kg bag. The minister had warned that strict action would be taken if any officer failed to discharge his responsibility in true spirit.

There are around 72 mills in Karachi, mostly situated in industrial areas. The millers had set up flour stalls outside their mills while only a few stalls had been set up at some distance in markets.

The PFMA Sindh chapter’s ex-chairman, Shaikh Akhtar Hussain, said around 100 stalls, including 72 stalls established outside the mills, had been set up in the city. He admitted that the general public seemed not very enthusiastic as most of them were unaware about the latest government decision regarding the stalls. He reckoned that the supply of cheap flour had been confined to particular areas so that the poor population could get flour at subsidized rate. The government had also prepared a list of spots in main markets to set up wheat flour stalls. He was hopeful that the situation would improve because all 142 stalls would become operative from Saturday.

However, he said that he could not give the exact percentage as to how many people out of the city’s total population would be able to get the flour bags from these stalls. A person could not purchase more than two bags of 10kg flour at a time, he added.

Talking about the increase in flour prices from Rs1,450 to Rs1,525 on an 80-kg bag during the last one week, he said the wheat rates would start coming down following the improved wheat flour supply from Punjab and Sindh food departments. A mill that used to get 2,280 bags of 100kg wheat every week some time ago was now getting 2,510 to 2,520 bags per week from the food department, he added.