SWABI: The district administration has booked three dealers for selling subsidised sugar illegally to bakers here in the district headquarters to earn profits at the cost of poor consumers.

Officials in the district administration told this correspondent on Friday that they had got information about involvement of the dealers in the illegal business.

They said that afterwards raids were conducted by Swabi assistant commissioner Islahuddin on warehouses of bakers who were caught using the subsidised sugar in making sweets for the upcoming Eid. Answering a question, they said that several points had been established in the district to make it easy for the consumers to get sugar on lower price.

When contacted, Mr Islahuddin said the government had provided subsidised sugar to dealers for selling it at Rs85 per kilogramme in the market to the consumers, but some of them started selling it to bakers and other traders on higher rates.

“I made secret visits to the bakers’ stores and found many bags of subsidised sugar there,” he said. Answering a question, he said that FIRs were registered against three dealers of district and further legal proceedings had been started.

GANG BUSTED: Police here have arrested three robbers who confessed to their involvement in eight cases in the district during the preliminary investigation, said district police officer Mohammad Shoaib Khan on Friday.

He told mediapersons the police had also recovered Rs500,000 cash from them and a motorcycle, masks and two pistols used during snatching money. The DPO said the accused had looted people in Saleem Khan village, Zaida city, Muchi Banda, Jalbai, Khunda, Tordher, Panjpir, Nawazabad, Kotha and Kalabat. The accused belong to Nowshera and Punjab.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2021