Hyderabad: Flour mills urge govt to bail them out

Hyderabad: The two-month-long lockdown has cast a shadow over flour mill business in the city as the owners are witnessing a significant drop in footfalls these days since the Coronavirus outbreak.

"Lockdown has brought our business to a grinding halt as there is a significant drop in number of customers these days. Normally, 20 to 25 customers used to visit my flour mill per day for grounding grains prior to lockdown. However, this number has fallen to 10 to 12 per day," said Mohammed Jahangir who runs a flour mill at Shastripuram Road.

Recalling the business in first week of the lockdown, he said, "People were frightened by the sudden lockdown and tried to stock food essentials. There were even 35 customers per day who preferred grounded grains. However, soon the number dropped to 12 per day in the following days and the trend is continuing."

"With flour mill owners running in losses, the government should extend financial support through banks in this testing times. This will help them get back to their business which was severely affected by the imposition of lockdown, said T Raju, another flour mill owner at Hussaini Alam. "We are opening the shutters from morning to 4 pm for a few customers," he added.

"Every locality in the city has at least one flour mill. These mills get business from a few customers who prefer grounded grains locally instead of buying packaged flour," said Mohd Imaam Tahseem, a resident of Bahadurpura. However, he said, even these customers avoided visiting flour mills during the lockdown.