MIRPURKHAS                  -            Flour crisis continued to persist in the city and other areas of the district on Saturday as people were compelled to buy flour at prices ranging between Rs65 and Rs70 per kilogramme.

Over a hundred chakies have already been closed in the city and its outskirts due to the shortage of wheat.

District Food Controller Mir Ali Muhammad Talpure told this scribe that there was no wheat bag left in the godowns of Mirpurkhas district as well as in Umerkot district as a result of which his department was issuing permits to chaki owners for lifting the bags from district Khairpur.

He said subsidized wheat will reach here after some days which, he hoped, would ensure reduction in the rate of flour per kilogramme. Chaki owners told The Nation that subsidized wheat bags were being provided to them in a less quantity, and now they would have to travel to district Khairpur to lift the bags.

They said as a result they would have to bear the transportation expenses, which by no means would help reduce the flour price. They demanded the government to provide them subsidized wheat bags in a large quantity so that the flour rate could come down.

They further demanded the government to ensure crackdown on wheat hoarders in the district and also the recovery of their wheat bags of millions of rupees from them without any delay.