FAISALABAD, Oct 19: The Punjab government has asked the district administration to put profiteers behind bars instead of imposing small fines on them.

Taking stock of a district government report on the performance of special magistrates appointed to check price hike, it said these officials focused more on filework than carrying out field inspections. Even during raids they imposed minor fines on those selling foodstuff at high rates and not a single profiteer or hoarder was jailed.

After empowering DOs, sources said the provincial government had asked the district government a number of times to improve their performance to provide relief to the masses but to no avail.

Before Ramazan, the government had asked all districts to take measures to check price hike.

Taking strict notice of the failure of the district governments in this regard, the provincial government had sought performance reports of the last two months of officers deputed to conduct raids to check price hike.

In the case of Faisalabad, the home department expressed concern over poor performance of the magistrates. In August and September, it said the magistrates had detected 1,413 violations and imposed Rs2.2 million fine. It said the tendency of imposing small fines did not commensurate with the objective of assigning magisterial powers to the executives who were supposed to enforce the prices fixed by the District Price Committee without fear or favour.

Nazim Rana Zahid has asked the administration to do its utmost to comply with the order of the provincial government. — Correspondent