October 01, 2006	Sunday	Ramazan 7, 1427

KARACHI, Sept 30: Insufficient supplies of sugar, pulses and flour coupled with a marked difference in prices from the retail market have created a rumpus at utility stores in Karachi.

A survey of some busy utility stores by Dawn indicated that with the start of Ramazan the queues at stores have lengthened following the government’s failure to bring down the soaring prices during the holy month.

The persistent rising price trend in the markets has forced majority of middle and lower middle class buyers to move towards the utility stores where they continue facing ordeal under the scorching heat to get rationed quantity of sugar, pulses and flour at a discount.

“I am asked by a salesman at the USC to buy other items too to get sugar at a discounted rate,” said Arshad, at a utility store in Buffer Zone. He cursed himself for being so poor to face humiliation at the hands of utility staff.

Many of other people standing in the queue after Juma prayers were looking angry but had no choice as their limited income did not allow them to purchase expensive sweetener from the retail market.

One lady customer said that this was her fifth visit to the store since the eve of Ramazan but she had not been able to get items she needed.

Utility Stores Corporation Managing Director Brig (retd) Hafeez Ahmed said while talking to Dawn from Islamabad over telephone that sugar buying was not tied to any other item. “If staff at utility stores were found harassing buyers with such condition they would be taken to task.”

The USC managing director, however, denied that there was shortage of commodities, especially the subsidised items, saying if any commodity falls short it is replenished immediately.

When his attention was drawn towards the quality of products, especially of dal channa and flour, he said best quality products were being offered to consumers at the utility stores. He said the current discount in prices was only meant for Ramazan and it might not be extended after the holy month.

Asked about the growing rush for sugar and pulses despite increased supply under the Ramazan relief package, the USC managing director said that supplies were being further boosted up to meet the rising demand.Items in short supply at USCs in Karachi such as sugar, pulses and flour are available in abundance in the wholesale and retail markets.

The initiatives announced in the budget for improving the supply chain of commodities have not been implemented so far and the rush at a few hundred utility stores across the country has been growing. Plans to build model markets across the country, besides mobile stores, have not yet been implemented.“The USC has not been successful in providing subsidised food items -- sugar and pulses -- to the consumers without standing in the long queues even in Ramazan,” said one Babar who was in a queue outside a utility store in New Karachi.

A local buyer Saleem commented that the problem is not the supply but the cartelisation and government’s failed role as regulator and administrator.

“It has now become almost impossible to get sugar without facing humiliation and spending at least an hour at the utility stores,” said a lady customer.

When contacted USC Regional Manager for Sindh-Balochistan Zone Masood Alam Niazi told Dawn that the consumption patterns did not change overnight but the greed of people to acquire more than their immediate need had aggravated the situation, depriving others of availing this facility.

He said in Karachi alone 57 stores were operating, which was very meagre number in view of the huge population of this mega city of over 15 million people, and sugar supplies had been boosted to around 200,000 packets of five-kg during Ramazan from less than 100,000 packets.

The other reason cited by Mr Niazi was a huge price difference as compared to market rates, which was also attracting crowds at the stores, though majority of them belong to low and fixed income group.

To cater to the demand of enhanced clientage, he said a number of sales points had been set up in the city, besides setting up stalls at bachat bazaars in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Defence, Qayyumabad, Orangi Town, Landhi, Annu Bhai Ground, etc. Four mobile stores were also in operations in areas where utility stores were not established.

He said further that the quality of goods was checked and tested before its sales were allowed and if despite that complaints arose, the product was put off the shelves. He particularly mentioned about the quality of flour and dal channa terming them the best available in the market.