Syed Ali Shah:
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QUETTA: Delayed and less purchase of wheat was the underlying reason behind the prevailing wheat crisis in Balochistan. The provincial food department purchased only 290,000 bags of wheat from Balochistan’s green belt Naseerabad in April last year. Although, the department had to purchase one million bags of 100kgs wheat as per the requirement of the province.
“There was a political crisis last year and the provincial government failed to give importance to the wheat purchase”, a well-placed official of the food department said. He requested anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Food department fails to purchase 1 million 100kgs bags from the Naseerabad division
The Balochistan food department purchases one million bags of 100kgs wheat at per annum from Naseerabad, Jaffarabad, Sohbat Pur and Jhal Magsi to meet its flour demand, the official mentioned. Former Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan and others had announced to submission of a no-confidence motion against CM Mir Quddus Bizenjo. “Purchasing wheat was secondary since the government was busy to counter the no-confidence motion”, he said.
The yearly requirement of Balochistan is 150,00,000 bags. The Punjab government and PASCO also failed to provide timely wheat supply to the provincial government to overcome the flour crisis. PASCO has agreed to provide only 200,000 bags of wheat to Balochistan out of a total demand of 600,000 wheat bags to the province, Secretary Food Balochistan Ayaz Khan Mandokhail told a meeting on Tuesday.
Gichki chairs a meeting regarding flour crisis
The Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Balochistan, Mir Imran Gichki chaired a high-level meeting to review the situation developed in the aftermath worsening flour crisis. The meeting thoroughly reviewed the flour crisis and made a number of decisions to overcome the flour crisis in Balochistan.
Flour prices skyrocketed recently as the 20-kilogram flour bag which was available at Rs.2000 was now being sold at Rs.3000 in the open market. This has further compounded the problems of the masses already affected by the worst inflation.
