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WEEKLY
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| Acute shortage of sugar in Rawalpindi |
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Friday, November 06, 2009
Khalid Iqbal
Rawalpindi
There is an acute shortage of sugar in the city for last three days, which can be gauged from the fact that it is not even available at the government-run Utility Stores Corporation (USC) outlets.
Customers went from shop to shop in search of sugar here on Thursday but to no avail. To make situation worse for customers, shopkeepers increased the price of ‘shakar’ (raw sugar) to Rs120 per kilogram against its rate of Rs64 only last week.
Executive District Officer (Revenue) and Sugar Crisis Cell In-charge Muhammad Zubair Khan admitted that people were suffering because of shortage of sugar for last few days. He said that the Punjab government has cut down the quota of sugar for Rawalpindi. Earlier, the provincial government was supplying 4,000 bags of 50-kilogram sugar but for last many days it is supplying half of it and sometimes only 500 bags, he added.
He said that there is a disturbance in the supply after the Supreme Court of Pakistan fixed the price of sugar. He said that the supply would improve in some days, adding that they were providing sugar to shopkeepers without any difference.
Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan Zonal Manager Sardar Muhammad Khan admitted that they were not getting the required supply of sugar. For this reason, customers were facing shortage of sugar. According to him, they were providing only two 40-kilogram sugar bags to every USC outlet, which was not sufficient.
On the other hand, shopkeepers blamed that the local administration was providing sugar bags to people of its choice. “They are providing sugar to owners of sweet shops and bakers because they pay Rs2,300 for a bag of 50 kilograms, while shopkeepers pay Rs1,925 for it. The local administration has not providing even a single bag to shopkeepers during last three days,” they said.
Ghaffar Ahmed Khan, a shopkeeper in Muslim Town, said that he used to buy five bags of sugar from the local administration almost daily until the last week, but during last three days he could not get even a single bag. The Punjab government has fixed the rate for owners of sweet shops and bakers at Rs2,300 per bag and Rs1,925 for shopkeepers, he said.
The local administration claimed that they had issued more than 5,000 cards to shopkeepers during October due to which people were getting sugar easily from every outlet.
Reliable sources in the local administration told ‘The News’ that the Punjab government had supplied more than 150,000 bags of sugar for Rawalpindi last month. The local administration issued more than 5,000 cards to shopkeepers during last month. Several shopkeepers, including owners of sweet shops and bakers, and influential people of Rawalpindi got several bags of sugar during last month without any rule and regulation, sources added.
As many as 23 magistrates were assigned the task last month to check hoarding of sugar. Sources said that out of them only three to four magistrates used to check the market. In fact, shopkeepers and dealers hoarded sugar in bulk during the last month and they were not selling it for Rs40 per kilogram.
According to a survey, some shopkeepers are selling sugar in black for Rs60 to Rs65 per kilogram for last three days but no action is being taken against them by the magistrates.
The residents of Sadiqabad, Chungi 8, Tench Bhata, Misrial Road, Allahabad, Adiala Road, Lalkurti, Chaklala Scheme-III, Gharibabad, Raheemabad, Kamalabad, Aria Mohallah, Bagh Sardaran and Waris Khan are facing acute shortage of sugar for a couple of days.
Zubeida Bibi, a customer waiting for sugar in front of a USC outlet, told ‘The News’ that she went from one shop to another in search of sugar but failed to get it. She even failed to get sugar from the USC outlet. In a state of helplessness, she went to a shop for buying ‘shakar’ (raw sugar) but the shopkeeper demanded Rs120 for one kilogram. She said that she could not afford ‘shakar’ at such an exorbitant rate.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
