ISLAMABAD: As many as 25 teams of the prime minister’s Corona Relief Tiger Force are actively assisting Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration in curbing profiteering and hoarding in urban and rural areas of the capital.

According to a spokesman for the administration, each team includes 10 to 15 members who have been directed to watch out for hoarding or profiteering in the areas they have been assigned. They were also ensuring display of the official rate lists at shops, kiosks and pushcarts, he added.

At present, he said, 700 volunteers are actively performing duties, including the implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) to prevent further spread of Covid-19.

The teams have also been ensuring availability of essential commodities across urban and rural areas.

Responding to a query, he said traders welcomed the government’s initiative of deploying volunteers in the city and were cooperating with them.

The government has recently assigned a new task to volunteers, which is to identify hoarding and artificial price hike in their respective areas, he said.

The tiger force was formed in March following the outbreak of Covid-19 to aid the civil administration in activities to curb spread of the virus and was later assigned additional duties.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2020