ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: The director sanitation of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has said the minimum penalty for stallholders in the CDA’s weekly bazaars found guilty of excess charging, selling bad quality products or tampering with weights and measures during Ramazan would be immediate cancellation of their stalls.

The director Sanitation, Syed Mustafain Kazmi, after a meeting with representatives of stallholders in the CDA’s weekly bazaars, said on Saturday the prices of commodities during Ramazan would be revised downward after taking into account the price trend over the last couple of weeks in the open market.

The CDA chairman, Chaudhry Abdur Rauf, also directed the assistant director ‘Bazaars’ and the ‘Bazaar Inspectors’ of the CDA to be extra vigilant during Ramazan against any price hike.

Chaudhry Rauf asked the director labour in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) to conduct frequent checkings in the CDA’s weekly bazaars as well as in the open market to ascertain credibility and accuracy of weights and measures during Ramazan.

The chairman directed the director Sanitation to carry out surprise checks of the bazaars throughout Ramazan and ensure that prices remained stable while the quality of products were strictly monitored.

Mr Kazmi said the authority carried out an exercise to check the price hike being registered over the last couple of weeks on Friday as there were frequent reports that prices of a number of essential commodities and edibles had gone up ahead of Ramazan.

“A survey of all the three weekly bazaars was conducted and prices were compared with those prevailing in the open market as well as in the utility stores.

“It was found out that prices in weekly bazaars of the CDA were still much lower. For example, gram flour (baisan) was being sold in the CDA’s bazaars at Rs24 per kg whereas it was available between Rs24-34 per kg in the open market, and in the USC the fixed price for the commodity was Rs34 per kg,” the director, sanitation, said.

The director said: “The prices of a number of other items were also checked and it was found that the 5kg of Dalda ghee was available in ‘Juma Bazaar’ for Rs345 while the same was being sold for Rs395 in the open market and at the USC.

“The 20kg bag of wheat flour was available for Rs209 in the ‘Juma Bazaars’ whereas in the open market the price was Rs220 and at the USC it was Rs212 per bag.”

Similarly, he said a marked difference existed in the prices of the open market, the USC and those of the CDA bazaars, and items like ‘Dal Chana’, ‘White Chana’, sugar, red beans, dates and many other items were available at considerably cheaper rates in the CDA’s bazaars.

Still, he said, after today’s meeting with the wholesalers and retailers in the weekly bazaars it was agreed to further cut down the prices of essential commodities, especially those of vegetables and fruit during Ramazan.