The people of the province, particularly Karachi and Hyderabad, are not benefiting at all from the Rs 2 billion ‘Ramazan Package’ as the flour mills are allegedly misusing the subsidy due to lack of proper checks from the government, Pakistan Today has learnt.
With an aim to facilitate the masses during the holy month of Ramazan, the cash-strapped Sindh government had decided to ensure provision of wheat flour at cheaper rates by providing subsidy to the millers.
Following the announcement, then Karachi Commissioner and now District Coordination Officer (DCO) Mohammad Hussain Syed ordered the sale of subsidised wheat flour at around 594 locations in the metropolis.
At least 375 shops, 144 stalls in Bachat Bazaars and 75 outlets at flour mills were designated to sell 10-kg bags of wheat flour at Rs 210.
The deputy commissioners were also directed to select locations in their respective districts where the subsidised wheat flour was to be provided.
Well-placed sources in the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) told Pakistan Today that a number of flour mills have not established the sale outlets so far and are also not supplying subsidised wheat flour to the shops selected.
They said the Sindh Food Department released around 220,000 tonnes wheat to the flour mills of the province during Ramazan to ensure provision of wheat flour at Rs 21 per kg, as a subsidy of at least Rs 1625 per 100 kg was being provided to the millers.
At a meeting to review the benefits of subsidised flour scheme at the CDGK headquarters in Civic Centre on Wednesday, Karachi DCO Syed also expressed apprehensions that the general public was not receiving the benefits of the Ramazan Package.
The meeting was attended by Revenue EDO Ghanwar Leghari, Additional EDO Matanat Ali Khan, District Officer, DDOs and representatives from the Sindh Food Department and a flour mills association.
Addressing the participants of the meeting, the DCO asked the mill owners and the food department officials to make the whole procedure for procuring subsidised wheat flour easy and better for the people. He urged them to make the availability of subsidised commodity easier so that it could reach the maximum number of poor people in the city.
Syed also directed the Revenue DDOs to check how many flour bags were brought to the market and instructed them to compile the complete record of delivery at the town level.
Rs 2bn Ramazan Package not for the poor?
