KARACHI, Oct 29: The mushroom growth of illegal Bachat bazaars is continuing unchecked all over the city ahead of Eidul Fitr, without the permission of relevant department of the city government.

This practice is creating a host of problems, including traffic jams and law and order situation in the city, as a large number of people visit these unplanned bazaars, which mostly lack proper security arrangements.

These bazaars could be seen springing up in several parts of the metropolis with the permission of town and UC administrations. In many city areas, the organizers are running such bazaars with the connivance of area police, which allegedly receive a lion's share for helping them to occupy the land for the purpose.

This random growth of such bazaars was providing no relief to the masses, as essential items were not being sold at concessional rates due to a lack of an effective check on part of town and UC administrations, who keep the CDGK's relevant office away from it, some city government officials said.

According to the officials, as per the Sindh Local Government Ordinance-2001 (1st Schedule Part D-II and Sindh District Governments (Conduct of Business) Rules-2001 (Para 5-iii, b & c, the Enterprise and Investment Promotion (E&IP) department of the CDGK had been entrusted with control, monitoring and stabilizing prices of essential commodities and organizing industrial exhibitions.

"Therefore, grant of permission for Bachat bazaars is the subject of E&IP, which is already dealing with the subject and granting permissions after completion of formalities," they added.

They also claimed that the unauthorized granting of permission for such bazaars was also resulting in financial loss to the city government, which could have earned considerable revenue through charging fee for granting such permissions.

The town administrations were also violating the decision of the Mushawart Committee, that had placed the subject of bachat bazaars exclusively under the E&IP department of the CDGK, the officials said.

Besides, a large number of illegal weekly Bachat bazaars were also being held in different parts of the city, sources said and attributed it to a lack of a proper policy to check these illegal bazaars. The city government's Bachat bazaar policy was lying pending with its high-ups for long, the sources added. -PPI