CHARSADDA: The district administration has failed to fix prices of daily use commodities for the holy month of Ramazan with traders fleecing consumes at will.

Majority of the people here who started fasting on Thursday have already been suffering due to prolonged loadshedding in the scorching heat.

Taking advantage of the indecision of the district price review committee the retailers have increased rates of daily use items manifold.

Consumers told Dawn that while price review committees in all districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had fixed rates of essential items two days before Ramazan, the price review committee in Charsadda had yet to issue a price list to shopkeepers. “The district administration has miserably failed to evolve a mechanism to keep check on the black marketers and hoarders,” lamented a consumer.

Rehmat Hanif of Musa Kalli said the shopkeepers and vendors were selling essential items on rates of their own free well as they knew that there was nobody to stop them from doing so.

Hasibullah, another consumer, said the food department officials were nowhere to be seen to keep check on erring shopkeepers. He said he wished to buy a lot of things for his children for Iftar but he couldn’t do so due to high rates of commodities.

The residents alleged that sugar was not available even at utility stores, while price of ice had increased manifold.

A food official told Dawn on condition of anonymity that though a meeting was held at Charsadda deputy commissioner’s office a price list wasn’t issued to traders on the occasion.

The people appealed to the commissioner Peshawar and director food to take notice of the situation.

Meanwhile, the youth thronged Jindi, Sradaryab and Khiali Rivers to beat the heat.

Rahim Zada said due to absence of drinking water at homes and suspension of electricity they had no option but to get to rivers to cool off during Ramazan.

The residents held local elected representatives responsible for their problems.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2015

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