RAWALPINDI, Sept 9: Despite the measures taken recently by the Punjab government to streamline the supply of wheat flour to the citizens of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, the staple food is not available freely in the twin cities.

Food department officials believe it is a problem of distribution. They have, therefore, decided to involve the traders' association of Rawalpindi, the more populous of the two cities, in selling wheat flour through retail shops.

Deputy Controller Food Sharjeel Mirza told Dawn on Tuesday that the Anjuman-i-Tajiran Rawalpindi had been asked to inform him the areas where Atta was in short supply and the quantity needed.

“The only condition for the retailers would be to display the stock available in their shops,” he said.

But an official of the flour mills association on the other hand insisted that the problem lay in short supply of wheat to the flour mills.

"Give me enough quantity of wheat and I will give you enough quantity of flour," argued Abdul Rehman, vice-chairman of the Punjab Flour Mills Association, Rawalpindi Region.

“There is no shortage of flour, only shortage of wheat stock with the government,” he said, claiming that the quota of wheat supplied to millers was based on the quantity consumed by the population of Rawalpindi 20 years ago.

Since then the combined population of Rawalpindi and Islamabad has increased to nearly 3.5 million, he said.

If the provincial government was sincere in eliminating the current shortage, it should supply the millers 35,000 bags of wheat per day, Mr Rehman added.

Meanwhile, Deputy Controller Food Sharjil Mirza expects the network of retail shops selling Atta would be in place in a day or two.

Not every consumer wants to line up in ‘sasta bazaar’, fair price shop or weekly bazaars to buy flour. The most respectable way for consumers to buy the commodity is from grocery stores. Such an arrangement disappeared last year when the flour crisis reached its climax.

The President of Anjuman-i-Tajiran Rawalpindi Shahid Ghafoor Paracha, when contacted, said the Karyana Shops Association had complained that their shops were not being supplied with wheat flour and there was a shortage of the commodity in the retail shops.

The department has divided the city into six zones, each covered by a four-member committee comprising officials of the social security, social welfare, representative of NGOs and consumer protection committee. Supply of 50 bags to each shop through all the 64 fair price shops across the district would be ensured.