RAWALPINDI, June 3: The Punjab government and the flour mills of the twin cities lock horns over the issue of the sale price of wheat flour as the availability of atta to the residents of the twin cities is becoming more and more difficult.

It seems that the provincial authorises have not yet taken seriously the looming wheat flour crisis in the twin cities and adjoining rural localities where flour mills are on strike for the past four days demanding rise in the price of the commodity.

Chairman of the Punjab Flour Mills Association Habibur Rahman Leghari is scheduled to meet Food Minister Nadeem Kamran in Lahore on Wednesday to hammer out an amicable solution for the restoration of wheat flour supply to the wheat deficit areas of Rawalpindi, Islamabad and other areas.

If the meeting fails to yield any result, flour mills in the whole Punjab will show their solidarity with those of the twin cities to force the provincial government to take some decision regarding the price of atta, said Abdur Rahman Khan, vice president of the association of Rawalpindi-Islamabad.

Blaming that the food minister and secretary were responsible for the crisis, Mr Khan said they were lingering on the crisis and taking no decision.

“At every meeting, we are told to wait,” Mr Khan told Dawn.

Mr Rahman offered that the flour mills were ready to sell wheat flour at Rs365 per 20kg bag if the government provides wheat to flour mills at Rs625 per maund.

The mills were purchasing wheat from open market at Rs750 per maund and unable to sell atta at the government-fixed price, he said. Mr Rehman said flour mills were bound to sell atta at Rs365 a bag of 20kg till the first week of May when the supply of wheat from the food department was suspended.

He claimed each flour mill was suffering a loss of Rs50,000 to Rs80,000 per day, and the government was not concerned about the situation.

Meanwhile, District Food Controller Chaudhary Mohammad Asif has said the supply of wheat flour to Rawalpindi by flour mills of Gujranwala and Gujrat continues. The district is receiving 25,000 to 30,000 bags of atta on a daily basis which was being sold at the sale points, he said.

APP adds: The Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) here on Tuesday urged the government to let the open market determine the price of wheat flour or co-relate it with the wheat prices to stabilise the price of the commodity.

Chairman PFMA Punjab chapter Habibur Rahman claimed at a press conference here on Tuesday that the government had stopped the supply of wheat from official stores from May 7.

He asserted that the mills owners were not trying to create any cartel to increase the atta prices.

Former chairman PFMA Shaikh Muhammad Shabir said on the occasion that the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and Jhelum were wheat deficit areas where the millers have to purchase wheat from other districts including Multan, Burewala and Sahiwal.