District Coordination Officers (DCOs) have been directed to complete all arrangements immediately to ensure sugar supply at the final retail price, according to a press release issued by the Chief Minister’s House. Stern action will be taken against people found selling sugar at rates higher than the prescribed price, the statement added.
Meanwhile, the provincial government is yet to decide whether a special stall will be setup for providing sugar at subsidised rate or whether it will be made available through utility stores at a cheaper rate.
A spokesperson for the Sindh chief minister said that the government will take stiff action against hoarders and profiteers.
Officials also said that the provincial government has made adequate arrangements for receiving 70,000 tons of sugar of the stock being offloaded by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan.
On Wednesday, a meeting was held at the Chief Minister’s House to review the prices of essential commodities, including sugar. The meeting decided to set the retail price of sugar at Rs61, but within 24 hours the decision changed.
Talking to The Express Tribune a spokesperson for the chief minister said that the retail price of sugar has been fix at Rs71 per kilogramme.
Talking to the media at the interior ministry in Islamabad on Thursday, the Director-General (DG) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Waseem Ahmed described the sugar crisis as a “burning issue”. He said that Interior Minister Rehman Malik has finalised an inquiry into the Trading Corporation Pakistan (TCP) case, adding that senior officials were found to have been involved in the case. “The (findings) of the inquiry are being finalised. We will certainly take action against hoarders if (enough) sugar is not brought out (in the open market) in the next 24 hours,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 12th, 2010.
COMMENTS (3)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ