Subsidised items available at USC without long queues

Islamabad : People can buy all subsidized items including ‘sugar’ and ‘ghee’ in bulk without long queues and there will be a strict check on shopkeepers and hoarders who will not be allowed to buy these subsidized items in bulk, Utility Stores Corporation (USC) Regional Manager (Islamabad) Naveed Nasrullah told ‘The News’ here on Tuesday.

Utility Stores Corporation (USC) Managing Director Omar Lodhi has directed all store managers to provide all eatable items to needy people without long queues.

The situation of long queues in the federal capital, Islamabad was better than Rawalpindi. There are long queues of consumers in front of every store in Rawalpindi but the situation was quite different in Islamabad stores. There are total of 78 government-run utility stores in the Islamabad region where the consumers are buying all eatable items including ‘sugar’ and ‘ghee’ in bulk.

Utility Stores Corporation (USC) Regional Manager (Islamabad) Naveed Nasrullah said that because there was a significant difference between prices of different items in the open market and at utility stores, the number of customers at the latter had increased remarkably. “We are providing 1-kilogram sugar at Rs68 against Rs100 in the open market and 1-kilogram ghee at Rs170 against Rs270 to Rs300 in the open market,” he said.

He said that thousands of customers are buying all eatable items in bulk on daily basis from stores. He said utility stores had registered a record sale during the first seven ‘rozas’ of Ramazan. “We are strictly monitoring profiteers and hoarders for trying to buy all subsidized items particularly sugar and ghee from utility stores to sell it in retail shops,” he said. “We will register FIRs and send suck kind of people to jail,” he warned.