It is a responsibility of the government to ensure that the flour is made available to people at affordable price. Although the main crop of Punjab is wheat and the province has the potential to produce wheat required for the whole population of the country, even the people of Punjab are standing in queues for hours to buy a bag of 20 Kg at Rs 450. Who is responsible for the flour crisis? Flour mill-owners, the Punjab Food Department, the stockists, hoarders or smugglers? I think the Punjab Food Department, which has the responsibility of procuring wheat and then supplying it to flour mills according to their quota, is the main culprit. It is known to every person involved in wheat business that the Food Department officials are corrupt and incompetent. It is their negligence and corruption that has caused the present crisis in the first place. Then come hoarders and smugglers who should be brought to book by the government. There is also an urgent need to modernize the system of procurement of wheat and its distribution to flour mills. -ENGR S.T. HUSSAIN, Lahore Cantt., via e-mail, August 19.