LAHORE - Chairman Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) Punjab-branch on Saturday alleged that the food department was deliberately trying to create an atmosphere of confrontation between millers and the government to conceal their own corruption. "We have also decided to move to the court to challenge all the wrong steps of the food department in future. If they (food department officials) will try to harass the millers by using pressure tactics, we will move to the court to seek justice," Habib-ur-Rehman Leghari Chairman PFMA told reporters while addressing a news conference here on Saturday. He also said that the negotiations were underway with the food department for issuance of wheat quota. "But we were given a message through police that millers should forget government wheat quota due to which we decided to boycott today's negotiations," he said.  He said the prices of wheat had reached Rs 760-780 per 40-kg in the open market and production cost of 20-Kg bag had reached to Rs 440-450 per bag. So we could not sell the 20-kg flour bag at the government's fixed price of Rs 365, he claimed. He said that they were asking the government to increase the price of flour for the last two and half months. PFMA Chairman also criticised the permit system, which allows millers to export flour and maida to other provinces. He alleged that corrupt elements of food department were earning million of rupees by issuing such permits to the millers. He claimed that they had asked the department to stop this system and claimed that flour crisis in the province was due to this permit system. He also claimed that they had a written deal with the Food Department Punjab on May 17 deciding that rate of flour bag would remain at Rs 375 per 20-kg bag for a week and rates would be revised keeping in view the prices of wheat in the open market. He said it was decided that this agreement would not be publicized and the millers stand by their words but food department presented this agreement in a wrong way to the Chief Minister Punjab. Responding to question, he said that they had not closed the doors of negotiations. We are ready to hold meeting with the government to solve the problem, he said. He further demanded the government to either increase the price of flour bag or issue wheat to the mills from government stocks to improve the flour supply in the province. He said that the Association, which was scheduled to hold a round of talks with the Punjab Food Department on Saturday, boycotted the meeting as the food department is using police and the administration as tools to force the millers to sell flour at the rate of Rs 365 per 20-kg.