Ramazan monitoring: PFA crackdown continues

Government collects over Rs2 million in fines 


Our Correspondent June 11, 2016
Government collects over Rs2 million in fines. PHOTO: ONLINE

LAHORE: The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) on Saturday continued to crackdown on the manufacturing and sale of substandard eatables.

The authority sealed the nimko and pakori manufacturing unit of Lahore Foods in Attari Saroba on account of poor hygiene standards. PFA food safety officials, under the supervision of PFA Operations Director Ayesha Mumtaz, conducted a raid at the establishment and found it to be in an abysmal state. Workers present were attired in squalid clothes. Freshly manufactured and expired products were being stored together at the premises without any distinction. No separate areas had been reserved for them and the eatables were devoid of labels.

Separately, price control magistrates continued to take punitive action against traders and shopkeepers involved in hoarding, profiteering and selling adulterated produce. A Ramazan Monitoring Report issued on Saturday revealed that 1,756 price control magistrates had been monitoring the situation and regulating essential commodity prices province-wide. According to the report, 2,100 markets and 9,326 shops had been inspected to date in this regard. It stated that 1,737 traders had been fined for fleecing the people, 48 for hoarding and 54 for selling adulterated products. The remaining individuals were involved in other minor violations, it read.

The document stated that the government had collected over Rs2 million in fines from shopkeepers and street vendors province-wide for fleecing the people and flouting price regulations. According to the report, the highest violations in this regard had been recorded in Gujranwala where over Rs200,000 had been collected in fines. Bhakkar came in at the lowest, according to the document, with only Rs3,000 being collected in fines.

The report stated that price control magistrates had conducted raids across 1,302 shops, markets and warehouses across Lahore. The document revealed that Rs58,500 had been collected from traders in fines there. The report stated that FIRs had been registered against 95 traders while 160 had been nabbed district-wide for flouting price regulations.

Weights and measures across 2,110 shops were also inspected by the officials, the report read. It stated that violations had been recorded across 117 shops.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12th, 2016.

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