Food department claims to have streamlined free flour distribution.

LAHORE -- The Punjab food department claims that it has so far delivered bags to 5.4 million needy families in the province under the free flour scheme since its approval by the provincial cabinet.

The government had, under the direction of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, approved a free flour scheme for 15.8m poor families in the province last week and asked the food department to implement the same at the earliest.

A spokesperson for the department said on Thursday that they have by March 23 afternoon distributed flour bags among 5.4m poor and needy families or have achieved almost one third of the target in the largest-ever project for the provision of eatables to the masses free of cost.

Admitting 'administrative complications' during the first couple of days of the scheme, the spokesperson claimed that the relevant agencies have overcome the problems and now the free flour delivery scheme is going on smoothly.

Some incidents of stampede had been reported in the provincial capital and other towns in which a couple of people lost their lives or got badly injured while trying to get hold of a free bag.

The spokesperson said that learning lessons from the first two days of activities the authorities took steps to streamline the distribution system and thus cutting down long queues of free flour seekers. He said marriage halls have been arranged to make people sit there and get flour bags in a respective way without standing in a queue.

He claimed that most of the media reports pertaining to mismanagement in [flour] distribution had been found as baseless and a negative propaganda to defame the scheme.

SURPRISE VISIT: Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Thursday made a surprise visit to free flour distribution points established at Edgerton Road and expressed his indignation over the absence of flour distribution point head.

The staff members at the flour distribution point were also not...