April 02, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 24, 1429

KARACHI, April 1: The city government has failed to ensure the availability of milk at the official retail price of Rs34 per litre as retailers set Rs42 per litre as the new rate of milk in the metropolis from Tuesday.

“The retail price of milk is Rs42 per litre from Tuesday and the wholesale price of milk is Rs38.44 per litre,” Hafiz Nisar Gaddi, the chief of the milk retailers’ body, told Dawn.

People of the metropolis are the ultimate sufferers of the unjust hike in milk price and it seems the CDGK is helpless in front of a cartel of producers and distributors of fresh milk.

The Enterprise and Investment Promotion (E&IP) department of the city government had notified Rs32 and Rs34 as wholesale and retail prices of milk per litre but its Revenue Department, which is responsible for enforcing the official rates, failed to take action against the dairy farmers.

A CDGK press release issued on Tuesday said its officials, armed with magisterial powers, imposed fines of Rs199,000 on 53 shopkeepers for selling milk at exorbitant prices, besides arresting 23 milk-sellers for overcharging.

Retailers and wholesalers blamed the city government for the price hike because it failed to regulate dairy farmers.

“Dairy farmers were providing milk per litre to wholesalers at the rate of Rs37 when the official wholesale rate of milk was Rs32,” said Mr Gaddi. He condemned the CDGK action and said he would invoke the writ jurisdiction of the SHC against the “excesses” of the CDGK.