Price control magistrates tasked to go after profiteers

Pindi admin set up 21 makeshift markets to provide food items to consumers at affordable prices.

RAWALPINDI:

The Rawalpindi district administration has set targets to evaluate the performance of price control magistrates.

They have been tasked to ensure the provision of food items at controlled rates to consumers throughout the division and control profiteering.

A senior official said that the administration has set up 21 new makeshift “pushcart markets” across the division to provide food items to consumers at affordable prices.

“This has not only provided employment opportunities to the jobless youth but also created a competitive environment which has significantly reduced the prices of fruits, vegetables and other food items,” the official claimed adding that 2,957 flour cell points have been set up in the division from where the citizens get good quality flour at controlled rates.

He said that flour mills provided 852,712 flour bags to consumers at a controlled rate in the last one week. The uninterrupted supply of cheap flour has reduced the queue of buyers in markets. As a result, he claimed, wholesalers have also reduced the price of flour, which has taken a toll on hoarders.

The official said 127 DC counters have been set up in Rawalpindi, where standard food items were provided to the consumers at reasonable prices. The officer said that there were 129 price magistrates in the district to enforce official rates in markets to protect consumers from profiteers.

The official claimed that action was being taken against price control magistrates who fail to meet the targets.

According to a report, in January, price magistrates carried out 15,663 raids against the profiteers and imposed a fine of Rs0.33 million besides registering four cases against shopkeepers.

According to the district administration, sale points have also been set up in 258 union councils to ensure the supply of urea to farmers. Each sale point has a stock of 6,372 bags of urea the district administration said.

Read: "63 price magistrates appointed in Pindi"

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2022.