Overpricing in Ramzan bazaars irks citizens
Inflation-hit citizens visiting Sasta Ramazan bazaars set up in various areas of the garrison city to buy daily-use items at cheaper rates have complained about the exorbitant rates amid unprecedented inflation.
Although the district administration has established several Sasta Ramzan bazaars and Fair Price shops in the city and Cantt areas to ensure the supply of essential items including vegetables, gram flour, dates, fruit, and chicken at affordable prices during the fasting month, people said the relief was insignificant given the scale of current inflation.
Citizens said this Ramazan is like no other as they are finding it increasingly hard to put food on the table for iftar and sehri.
They dubbed the discount offered to them at these bazaars a joke and said a meager Rs30 to Rs40 difference in comparison with the open market is a farce, to say the least.
People visiting the market to buy fruit for Iftar on the first day of the holy month returned empty-handed as apples were available at Rs450 per kg, guavas at Rs300 per kg, melon at Rs200 per kg, bananas at Rs300 per dozen and dates at Rs500 to Rs700 per kg.
A citizen said that the administration failed to curb the hike in food prices a week before Ramazan and the new prices of essential commodities were implemented to rob the people.
Citizens Mohammad Ramzan, Bashir Ahmed, Gulshan Malik, and Yasir Shabbir said that the rates of various items are reduced for those observing the holy month all over the world but in our country, Ramazan is considered an occasion to gain maximum profit, they said.
They further said the inflation is so high that they can’t even buy the basic food items for Iftar.
The citizens said that the authorities concerned have failed to enforce official prices, due to which those who earn profit by creating artificial inflation keep fleecing the people.
Before the advent of the fasting month, the Rawalpindi district administration had fixed new prices of essential commodities besides making 16 Ramazan Sasta Bazaars, 34 Fair Price Shops, and 8 Sasta Saheri Bazaars functional to help mitigate the impacts of high inflation on the low-income strata.
Sources in the administration said that 10 Ramazan Sasta Bazaars have been set up in the Cantonment areas and one each in Murree, Kotli Sattian, Kallar Syedan, Kahutta, Gujar Khan, and Taxila.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 24th, 2023.