NAROWAL: The agriculture department has seized 5,000 urea bags from different places in surprise raids in the three tehsils of Narowal.

Urea fertiliser was not available in the warehouses of fertilizer dealers during the surprise visit of the officers.

Later, the raids were carried out on the private places of fertilizer dealers in Zafarwal, Shakargarh and Narowal after human intelligence sources. Dealers stocked the bags of urea fertiliser in the warehouses of the sub-dealers.

The deputy commissioner said that 500 bags were seized from Munir Ahmed in Zafarwal Tehsil, 700 bags from Omar Malik, 1,100 bags from Imran Butt and 500 bags from Muhammad Bota.

Another 1,164 bags of urea fertiliser were recovered from Jamshed Ahmed and 190 bags from Shahbaz Ahmed in Badumlahi Town of Narowal. Up to 815 bags of urea fertiliser were recovered from Liaqat Ali in Shakargarh.

The seized bags were later sold to farmers at government rates. Fertiliser dealers are selling urea to farmers at Rs2,500 per bag instead of the government rate.

The district administration imposed a fine of Rs350,000 on dealers for hoarding and overcharging.

CASES: FIRs were registered against 39 shopkeepers in Sialkot for taking excessive profit in one week.

Price control magistrates collected a fine of Rs4.3 million from shopkeepers.

According to the district administration, 29 price control magistrates are working in the district and impose heavy fines on the shopkeepers who sell daily kitchen items on inflated rates.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2022