MULTAN - District administration launched a grand operation against flour mills on orders of deputy com­missioner (DC) Amir Khattak and sealed eight of them on charge of hoarding wheat on Tuesday. Thousands of Maunds of wheat found stored there was seized and handed over to food depart­ment, said an official release is­sued here. The flour mills sealed included United flour mills, Ibrar flour mills, and Green flour mills in Qadir Pur Raan, Sindhu flour mills at Makhdoom Rasheed, besides Al-Khair flour mills and Saifal flour mills near Chowk Naag Shah. Moreover, Yousuf flour mills at Mauza Lutf Abad, in tahsil Shuja Abad, and Ghareeb Nawaz flour mills in tahsil Jalal­pur Pirwala were also sealed and two persons were taken into cus­tody. Four official teams led by assistant commissioners (ACs) Shahzad Mehboob, Ms Abida Fareed, Ghulam Sarwar and Mu­hammad Zubair accompanying officials from Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), police, special branch, food and other departments conducted raids at flour mills in Multan Sadar, City, Shuja Abad and Jalalpur Pirwala areas respectively. DC Khatak said that no flour mills would be allowed to hoard wheat. He said that 20kg flour bags were being provided to the people at Rs860 per bag. The DC asked people to contact him in case of any com­plaint regarding price, adding those involved in profiteering would not be spared. He said that government was spending millions of Rupees on providing subsidised wheat to mill owners, adding that flour mills in Mul­tan district were getting 7,000 wheat bags, each weighing 100 kilogram, on a daily basis.

RS 1M DISTRIBUTED AMONG ARTISTS TO ADDRESS VIRUS-RELATED FINANCIAL MISERIES

Punjab Arts Council (PAC) Multan has distributed Rs1 million among artists to lessen their financial miseries after no-work-no-earning situation amid COVID-19 lockdown had left them high and dry. Director, Punjab Arts Council (PAC) Mul­tan Chaudhry Tahir Mahmood told media that Punjab govern­ment had decided to provide Rs5,000 financial assistance per person to people from en­tertainment industry who had to face financial troubles due to lockdown and had sought a list of such people from arts coun­cils. PAC Multan had sent a list of 264 artists, drama directors, cal­ligraphers, assistant directors, sound system workers, singers and other category workers to Punjab government.Chaudhry Tahir Mahmood said that the list was prepared in a transpar­ent manner and after proper inquiry and so far a sum of Rs1 million had been distributed among 200 artists in Multan at the rate of Rs5,000 per person. He said that cases of remaining 64 artists were under process for checking of their particulars.