The residents of Shangla have demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa foods authority and administration to take action against the flour mills and dealers in the markets as poor and hazardous quality flour is being sold in all markets.
The residents told reporters on Wednesday that there has been a severe issue of finding quality foods in the district markets particularly flour since its rates surged at extreme levels but the flour dealers sold the cheap quality hazardous flour of 40 Kilogram bags at Rs 2600 that caused health problems for the local communities.
Khalid Khan, a local in Bisham told that he had bought two bags of flour at Rs 2600 per 40KG bag from a flour dealer in Bisham two days ago that were not consumable like wheat chaff.
“I then bought a super fine at Rs 3000 to mix with the previous two bags but that could not help forcing us to give the flour to a neighbor who gave it to his cow,” he said.
Jahanzeb a pickup driver in Ranyal Shangla said he had bought a 40KG subsidized flour bag at Rs 1300 from a flour dealer shop in Bisham bazaar after waiting in a long queue but when he reached his home back happily with the flour bag and his wife checked the flour it was like wheat chaff.
He said they had to use the flour because they had no other option but as his children ate the bread they started vomiting and they went to school without having breakfast because the bread was hard and full of wheat chaff.
One of the flour dealers Kainfosh, who sold the poor-quality flour of Frontier Flour mills Haripur at Rs 2600 to customers when asked by this correspondent said that it was the flour mill’s mistake because they paid the mills and also Rs 20,000 bribe per truck to police on the way as the flour were smuggled not allowed its transportation legally.
“Many people have returned the flour and complained about the flour but since the price hike in flour prices and shortage we hardly find flour at mills and pay bribes to police also on the way to run our businesses,” he claimed.
Tashan Khan, a local, said the local dealers brought the poor-quality flour from Punjab and Hazara division districts and the subsidized flour was being transported to the market from the local flour mills located in Bisham and Dandai areas.
The Bisham tehsil assistant commissioner, Muhammad Jawad Asif told this scribe that he can take action against the flour mills located on his premises, however, he would visit the flour dealers to inspect the flour quality and after the collection of flour samples would be sent for testing.
The locals demanded of the government to ensure healthy foods, and flour in the markets and keep vigilant monitoring of the flour mills and dealers to protect the public lives.
