Ramazan relief package disappoints

ISLAMABAD: Customers who had fixed their hopes on the Ramazan Relief Package were disappointed to find themselves standing in endless queues for the most basic necessities, only to be returned empty handed.

Items like sugar, flour, pulses and dates seemed to have disappeared from markets, while they were sold at exorbitant prices at selected stores.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Manager Director Operation Utility Store Cooperation Sultan Mehmood confirmed the shortage of sugar this Ramazan.

“We are not receiving sugar from Karachi which is resulting in a shortage,” he said. Mehmood added that quotas of pulses and other food items had also finished.

Several residents of the capital who had already been reeling under inflation expressed disappointment over the government’s management during Ramazan. Shaukat, a resident of G-6/2, complained that he faced shortage of sugar wherever he went. A resident of Karachi Company said that essential food items like gram, basin, and dates were also not available at any of the utility stores.

“We have to wait for hours in queues and still get nothing in the end,” he said.

Customers also expressed concern over the quality of products being sold to them at these utility stores.

On the other hand, shopkeepers claimed that they had nothing to do with the shortage. “We receive only 20 bags of sugar each, containing 10 to 15 kg of sugar which is not enough to meet the demand,” a shopkeeper in G-8 said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2010.