Souring flour prices irritate NWFP people

PESHAWAR: NWFP residents are furious at the continuing flour shortage and escalating prices that are crippling their everyday lives

The Flour crisis in the NWFP is getting worse by the day - and many local residents are strongly criticising the Punjab government's ban on the supply of wheat and flour to other provinces.

The price of flour has now broken all previous records - as the wholesale price of a 20kg bag has doubled in local markets. One bag now sells for up to 700 rupees.

Flour dealers said, “Though the Punjab government pledged to provide flour to NWFP, it has failed to keep its word as it is not issuing us the permit so we have to smuggle it from there for which we pay one lakh and sixty thousand rupees while the government is not taking our problems seriously”.

The ban imposed by the Punjab on the inter-provincial movement of wheat has stopped flour supplies completely - no flour is arriving at the local Peshawar market from the wheat rich province.