PESHAWAR, Nov 28: Tandoor-owners observed a day-long strike on Saturday against the city district government's decision of not raising the price of Roti (bread).
They, however, decided to end the strike till Monday after holding talks with NWFP Minister Sardar Mohammad Idrees, Food Minister Fazle Rabbani and District Nazim Mohammad Azam Afridi.
Earlier, the protesters had announced that their strike would continue for an indefinite period unless the government reduced the price of flour or increase Roti prices. However, the city district nazim said the government would not accept what he called the bakers' irrational demands, but would not take action against them though their strike was illegal.
About 1,400 bakers went on strike and their shops remained closed throughout the day, which caused problems for a large number of consumers. Inhabitants were desperate to obtain sliced bread because of non-availability of Tandoori Roti.
Rush of the customers was also witnessed at flour shops. In the Cantonment area and city, shopkeepers, visitors and hoteliers were also affected. The district government had asked the Tandoor owners to sell 130-gram Roti at Rs2, while bakers were demanding to fix the price at Rs3.
Three associations of the Tandoor owners in the city, Al-Khidmat, Anjuman Nanbayan Association and Muttahida Nanbayan had formed an alliance to force the government to let them increase the price.
A meeting between the district nazim and the alliance's members, held to resolve the issue, ended without any breakthrough till the provincial ministers intervened. After the month of Ramazan, the Tandoor owners had fixed the price of 260-gram Roti at Rs4. Earlier, 150-gram bread was being sold at the rate of Rs2.
Citing reasons for increasing prices of bread, bakers said their business was running into loss, because of abrupt hike in the flour price. They said that 80-kg flour bag price was at present available at Rs1,300 while the government had made substantial increase in the price of natural gas.
