Bahawalpur residents boycott fruits for unjust rates

BAHAWALPUR: Reacting to the soaring prices of fruits in Ramazan, residents of Bahawalpur and Sama Satta have called for a boycott of the edible items to bring down the 'unjust' rates.  Concerned citizens have launched a movement on social media asking for three-day boycott of buying fruits.

The messages, which started circulating on WhatsApp Wednesday night, asked people to boycott the purchase of fruits from June 2 to June 4 in order to bring their prices down to a normal level.

In Ramazan, vendors tend to increase prices of essential items whose sale spikes as the demand increases. However, some sellers claim the rise in prices is not man-made but natural as demand increases manifold.



While speaking to The Express Tribune, residents said prices of fruits, vegetables and other items reduce during Ramazan all over the world but in Pakistan, the prices increase to an extent that it becomes impossible for a common man to buy them. They added the people of Bahawalpur would continue to boycott edible items for three days to build pressure on the vendors and retailers to lower the rates.

Meanwhile, the district administration claimed it had fixed the prices of fruits but the vendors were not willing to sell them on the prescribed rates. When The Express Tribune spoke to fruit vendors, they were of the view that they could not sell fruits on reduced rates as it would result in loss to their business.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2017.