December 14, 2006	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 22, 1427

KARACHI, Dec 13: The city government magistrates on Wednesday fined fresh milk retailers for selling the commodity at Rs30-32 per litre against the official rate of Rs28 under a price checking drive.

It is surprising that such price checking campaigns instead of producing any positive results have further been pushing up the prices of almost all essential commodities.

It is to mention here that the retailers have been selling milk at Rs30 for about a year against the official rate of Rs28, now again they have jacked up prices to Rs32 per litre on the plea that the producers and wholesalers have also increased prices.

In meat, the price checking campaign had not started yet, but fruits and vegetable vendors were issued only warnings as the city government had not issued price list for these commodities. In grocery items there appears no sign of any price checking campaign.

However, milk retailers appear highly unsatisfied over the price checking campaign saying that like previous campaigns it has been restricted to only retailers instead of wholesalers and milk producers.

All Karachi Milk Retailers Welfare Association (AKMRWA) President M. Nisar said that his members in Landhi, Korangi and other areas had informed him about the imposition of fines on them.

He said again the campaign had been imposed only on retailers and the city government was again least bothered in apprehending the main stakeholders (dairy farmers and wholesalers) who had actually increased the prices from December 1.

Nisar said that a senior city government official had said that the main focus of the campaign had been the wholesalers and farmers but it seemed that retailers were again the main target.

“If we are procuring milk at Rs30 per litre from wholesalers and farmers then how could we sell at Rs28,” he asked.

He said that Dairy Farmers

Association of Karachi led by Haji Akhtar was planning to increase Rs4 per litre from January 1, 2007 which means that the consumers would have to pay Rs34 per litre. While another group of farmers had already raised prices by Rs2 per litre but the government was not taking any action against them.

About 6,000-7,000 milk retailers besides uncounted suppliers on bicycle and motorcycles are operating in the city.

Sources said that a flavour milk making company is lifting 700-800 maund daily from the local market for the onward shipment to upcountry and for export purposes.

In-charge price checking campaign city government Matanat Ali Khan said that initial reports given by the DDOs said that three retailers were imposed fine of total Rs10,000 in Orangi Town and three others were also fined Rs3,500 in Lyari.

It has been observed that 36 officials comprising DDOs, mukhatarkars and assistant mukhtarkars are not enough to cover the mega city of over 150 million. In Ramazan this year the campaign was started with a bang but ultimately lost the thrust when officials became half-hearted coupled with non-cooperation of the police. As the latest campaign has been planned for one year it is unlikely to bear any fruitful results as these officials have other work to do.