Out of the 26,700 shops with food licenses, 40 percent of the exhibition business, fear of flour crisis. Photo file
Lahore: The issue of wheat import between the federal and Punjab governments became confused and politicized.
The issue of allowing Punjab to import 5 lakh tonnes of wheat through TCP was not included in the agenda of the ECC. The government was worried.
In addition, Punjab Food Department and other provincial departments including intelligence agencies revealed in their reports that the main reason for the low availability of government flour in the market is 7 to 8 thousand ghost shops, 30 to 40 percent of the 26,700 shops that have obtained food licenses. But exhibition flour is business.
After these reports and information, the Food Department has urgently started the scrutiny of food green licensed vendors for selling government flour to find 8 thousand ghost shops involved in consumption of government flour.
Director Food Punjab Shozab Saeed issued a letter to all the divisional deputy directors for immediate identification of ghost shops, ordering them to complete the scrutiny of the issued food green licenses within 15 days.
Physical verification of every licensed shop will be done during the scrutiny Director Food Punjab said in a conversation with “Express” that during the scrutiny bogus or fake food green licenses will be canceled immediately.
