HYDERABAD, March 11: Members of the district council on Thursday criticized the price hike in Sindh and demanded that the government should lift a ban on inter-district transportation of wheat to control the price of flour.
The chair allowed an out of turn resolution of Yousuf Qureshi, who said prices of essential commodities including milk, flour and meat were much higher in Sindh than in other provinces and the Sindh government had failed to control the hike.
He said the rising inflation had made the lives of poor people miserable given the fact that milk was sold at Rs24 per kilogramme, meat Rs100-120 per kg mutton Rs180 per kilo gram.
He said flour was not available even for Rs20 per kilogramme. Blaming concerned agencies for their failure in controlling prices of flour, he urged that the authorities to realise their responsibilities.
Rana Mehmood Ali came hard on provincial ministers for blaming district governments in enforcing their writ and said the Sindh government should lift the ban on transportation of wheat otherwise no one would be able to get flour in bazaars.
Babu Ramzan Arain said rotten wheat was provided to chakki owners and accused the government of committing fraud by denying that there was no shortage of wheat.
He said today 100 kg wheat was available at Rs1,200 against previous prices of Rs1,150 per 100 kg. He added that license fees of chakki had also been raised in Sindh whereas it was still reasonable in Punjab or NWFP.
Ibrahim Chishti said while it was right to blame Sindh government but district government was equally responsible as it failed to control prices. Q. Hakim urged members of parliament to make legislation for resolving wheat and flour crisis once and for all.
The council also adopted a resolution of Miran Mohammad Shah, demanding release of sugar cess funds to rural-based union councils on the ground that all the developments had come to a halt.
He refused to accept that the Sindh finance department had withheld sugar cess funds. It was our money collected in shape of taxes over transportation of sugarcane from different areas, he argued and said that the district Nazim should talk to the Sindh government.
He added that in several union councils of rural areas developments works were to be carried out through sugar cess that was why these works had been stopped.
Khawind Bux Jahejo and Karim Talpur said they had become tired of raising their voice on issues and left with no option but to resign from their seats. Mr Talpur said that nobody was listening to them here in the district council or in the district government.
The house also adopted a resolution of Miran Mohammad Shah, demanding of the government to equally disburse funds of Rs8.6 million of maintenance and repair (M&R) among UCs of Hyderabad Taluka and called for re-tenders of works of Rs8.6 million.
