HYDERABAD, Oct 24: Sindh food department vigilance committee Chairman, Shahnawaz Magsi, has refuted the allegations of the chakki owners against him and said that the chakki owners were trying to hoodwink the people by distorting facts.

At a news conference at the press club here on Friday, he said that the roller flour mills and the chakki owners were getting their full quota of wheat from the food department and selling wheat flour to the public at higher rates and indulging in profiteering.

The total production of flour, according to this quota, is enough to meet the requirements of a population of two million and, therefore, the question of shortage of flour simply does not arise, Magsi said and added that the chakki owners were playing foul and trying to create a shortage to secure windfall profits.

Come what may, I will not allow the sale of flour at higher rates, Magsi said and warned that the licenses of those chakki owners would be cancelled who were overcharging from the consumers.

He said that he had been in Hyderabad for the last one week and met with a large number of people here, Latifabad, Qasimabad and site area and everyone, without any exception, had complained that the chakki owners were not selling wheat flour according to the notified rates.

He termed the chakki owners greedy who always demanded increase in wheat quota and flour price, Magsi said. He disclosed that during his visit to Mirpurkhas the other day, he caught a truck loaded with 250 bags of imported wheat which were given to Noor Roller flour Mill and this wheat was being sent to Karachi and added that he had suspended the wheat quota and food grain licence of this mill.

He said he had also collected receipts from the shopkeepers in Kotri who had purchased flour from the chakki owners on high rates. He said action was also being taken against two chakki owners of Kotri. He appealed to the people not to purchase flour at high rates and lodge their complaints with the competent authority against the violators of notified rates.

When contacted on telephone, the president of Hyderabad Chakki Owners Association, Haji Nawab Ali and senior vice president, Mohammad Hanif said that the vigilance committee was nothing but a public stunt.

They said that the chairman of the committee, Mr Magsi was in the habit of visiting chakkis with armed squad and he collected the people of locality for the sake of publicity and insulted and humiliated the chakki owners to score points.

As we have strong reservations, therefore, we have declined to obtain challans from the food department to lift wheat, they said. They said, they had also been stopped from supplying chakki wheat flour to the kiryana merchants notwithstanding the fact that 95 per cent of the population purchase chakki flour from 6,000 kiryana shops which were scattered all over the three city talukas. They said, only roller flour mill owners have been allowed to supply flour to the kiryana shops.

They alleged that the chakki owners were being discriminated against and added that while 55 per cent of wheat quota was being supplied to a handful of flour mills, only 45 per cent quota was being supplied to scores of grinding units.

SPSC: The Sindh Public Service Commission has announced the names of 18 successful candidates for the posts of information officer (male/female) in the provincial information and archives department.