Four elderly people killed while collecting free flour in Pakistan's Punjab province: Officials

Lahore: At least four elderly people have died in the last few days while trying to collect free flour from the government distribution points in Pakistan's Punjab province, officials said on Saturday.The deaths were reported after several people flocked to the government distribution points after the cash-strapped Pakistani government introduced a free flour scheme for the poor especially in Punjab province to beat the sky-rocketing inflation."Four elderly people died and several fainted in a bid to collect free wheat flour in Multan, Muzaffargarh and Faisalabad cities during the last few days," a Punjab government senior officer told PTI.He said the incidents occurred due to the huge rush of people and lack of facilities at the distribution points set up by the government to distribute free flour among the citizens. "Two of them died due to stampede and the other two died after getting exhausted while standing in queue for long hours," he said.Police on the other hand also baton-charged the people seeking free flour to force them to stand in the queue. The people have criticised the lack of proper arrangements by the district administration at these distribution points and the short supply of flour.Most of them arrive at the flour points early in the morning and have to wait for a long time in queues. Former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has condemned the deaths and criticised the policy."This is today's Pakistan where the people are losing their lives to get free flour. And this is because of the bad policies of this government of looters and thieves," PTI Punjab president Dr Yasmin Rashid told PTI.Seeing the gross mismanagement at the free distribution of flour points, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has started visiting such points. On Saturday he visited Sargodha city and inspected the free flour points.Sharif checked the quality and weight of the flour bags and talked to people. He also directed the district administration to facilitate especially elderly people at the flour distribution points.Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.