Mardan admin fails to check price-hike in Ramazan

MARDAN: The district administration has failed to control price-hike in Ramazan and take action against profiteers.

The people expressed concern over the increasing prices of essential commodities like milk, sugar, wheat flour, pulses, vegetables and meat, asking the chief minister to take notice of the artificial price-hike and provide them relief.

A meeting of the District Price Review Committee was held a few days back with the deputy commissioner in the chair. However, instead of providing relief to the people in Ramazan, the district administration increased the prices of daily use items.

The price of gram flour (basin) was increased from Rs72 per kg to Rs100 per kg, the price of dal chana was raised from Rs115 to Rs125 per kg, the price of moong dal was enhanced from Rs175 to Rs185 per kg, the price of dal mash increased from Rs228 per kg to Rs250 per kg and the price of beans from Rs150 per kg to Rs170 per kg.

The district administration has also increased the price of other daily commodities. On the other hand, the traders are selling daily commodities as per their own will.

A customer at Bank Road Bazaar told this scribe that the butchers were selling

mutton from Rs1,000 per kg to Rs1,200 per kg. He added that butchers were selling beef for Rs600 per kg without any check from the authorities.

He added that milk sellers were also fleecing the customers while the prices of vegetables and fruit had also increased.

He said that it was the duty of the district administration to ensure the availability of edibles at official rates during the holy month of Ramazan.

The people demanded the government to withdraw the decision of the Price Control Committee increasing the price of the majority of the daily commodities and punish profiteers.

They asked the government to ensure the availability of edibles at subsidized rates to provide some relief to the faithful during Ramazan.