SWABI: The local butchers have informed the district administration that they cannot sell meat according to official price list in the month of Ramazan, sources say.

They said a meeting of the district price review committee was convened the other day by the administration to adopt a strategy for keeping prices under control during Ramazan.

Sources said that the butchers informed the administration that prices of animals registered a considerable increase due to which they faced financial difficulties and they were unable to sell beef or mutton at the prices as fixed by the government.

The government has fixed price of beef at Rs 550 per kilogram and that of mutton at Rs1,000 per kilogram. However, the butchers sell beef at Rs700 per kilogram and mutton at Rs1,500 per kilogram.

Iqbal Khan, a trader, told this scribe that the big problem was that officials were not visiting markets to check the prices of daily use commodities. He alleged that low ranked officials always looked for bargaining to achieve their personal interests at the cost of people.

“I have submitted an application against the butchers’ violation of the price list but the district administration has so far failed to take any action against butchers,” he said.

The consumers said that the district administration was responsible for their miseries by giving a free hand to butchers to charge people according to their well under the nose of the officials.

Ishtiaq Ahmad, who belongs to Maneri Bala village, told this scribe that butchers always exploited and overcharged the poor consumers and. He said that influential people and officials always got boneless meat and good mutton from butchers at official rate while common people were exploited. “This is practiced only in Swabi district,” he added.

An official of district administration, when contacted, said that they would not allow butchers and other traders to overcharge consumers. He said that people could register their complaint with them anytime and they would take prompt action.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2023