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| July 23, 2008 | Wednesday | Rajab 19, 1429 |
People caught in a whirlpool of price hike
RAWALPINDI, July 22: People have decried the spike in prices of food items as government’s complete retraction from its promises of extending relief to the inflation-hit masses.
Still recovering from the price hike of the recent past, the consumers are confronting new problems in the face of persistent upward trend in market rates.
The prices of core commodities like flour, ghee/cooking oil, tea, pulses, vegetables and fruits have registered an increase ranging between five and 100 per cent in the last few months.
The price of a 5kg canister has soared to Rs835, while that of a 20kg bag of wheat flour has risen to Rs420.
The rates of tea and detergents stand at Rs440 and Rs200 a kilogramme.
After phenomenal increase in the prices of pulses, Masoor is being sold at Rs140, Maash at Rs64 and red beans at Rs90 per kilogramme.
Same is the case with vegetables and fruits, as ginger is available at Rs160 per kg, tomato at Rs50, ladyfinger and cucumber Rs30, apples Rs180, mangoes Rs60, peaches Rs50 and grapes Rs120 a kilogramme.
Bakery items and confectioneries have also seen an increase of upto 15 per cent in their prices.
There has also been an increase of Rs3 in the rate of a bar of toilet soap.
“Every coming day we witness hike in the prices, yet authorities pay no heed towards the issue.
“It’s all because the government lacks political will to resolve our problems,” a working woman, Ms Tayyiba, said while talking to this reporter here on Tuesday.
According to her, the current government was no better than the previous one.
“In fact, it has worsened the matters to an extent that no room is left for the poor people,” she observed.
Jabar Akhtar, a government servant, said: “Nothing is stable in the country, and interestingly, no department owns the responsibility for handling the affairs, whether it is the elected representatives or the authorities meant to control the price hike,” he said.
“It seems as if they are the innocent and we are responsible for the prevailing situation,” he added.
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