Delhi Food and Civil Supplies Minister Haroon Yusuf on Wednesday said the various procedures involved in the sale of reasonably priced flour through Mother Dairy and Kendriya Bhandar outlets in the Capital have been tied up and distribution – at Rs.14 per kg – would start in about a week’s time.
The Minister, who visited Modern, Brittania and Rajdhani flour mills in the Lawrence Road area on Wednesday, said the Delhi Government would be getting its quota of subsidised wheat from the Food Corporation of India warehouses in Ludhiana. The price at which the grain would be provided is Rs.1,080 per quintal (100 kg) ex-Ludhiana.
“This means that we would be spending on transportation and grinding of the wheat and packaging of the flour. As per the demand of Mother Dairy we would also be offering them 5 per cent of the cost for their expenditure,” the Minister said.
After all these expenditures, the flour would be sold through Mother Dairy and Kendriya Bhandar outlets at nearly Rs.14 per kg. While the 5 kg bags would be sold for Rs.70, the 10 kg bags would be priced at Rs.139.
With the 10 major mills located in Delhi capable of producing about 1,000 tonnes to 1200 tonnes of wheat flour per day, within a week’s time enough supplies of this subsidised flour are expected to reach Mother Dairy and Kendriya Bhandar outlets.
“The flour would be of high quality and would still be a lot cheaper than the price of flour in the open market as the minimum support price for wheat has itself been increased to over Rs.1,400 per quintals by the Centre now,” said a Delhi Government official.
Incidentally, the visits of the Minister to the three flour mills were aimed at ensuring their preparedness for meeting the needs of Delhi. Also, the visits revealed that high level of quality control was being adhered to by the major mills of Delhi, the official said.