DADU: No bachat bazaar has been organised in the city to provide essential food and non-food items to general public at cheaper rates during the holy month of Ramazan thanks to complete lack of coordination between the district administration and shopkeepers, complain citizens.

They appealed to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to issue directives to Hyderabad commissioner and Dadu district administration to organise bachat bazaars in the city to facilitate town residents.

People complained to Dawn of overcharging during a survey carried out in the city on Wednesday and said that prices of vegetables, fruits and other food items had gone beyond their reach and there was no one to check the price spiral in the city.

Ashfaq Memon, a shopper, complained that there appeared to be the law of the jungle in Dadu. Prices of vegetables, fruits, meat, chicken and essential food items shot up with the onset of Ramazan but the administration was not ready to move into action against overcharging in bazaars and markets.

Mohammad Alam Memon said the sudden hike in prices of food items, fruits and vegetables with the advent of the holy month had forced the poor to limit their daily menu to staple food items only and not dare go near fruits or meat.

Lack of coordination between the district administration and shopkeepers was to blame for the fiasco, he said.

Sakhi Shah Mohammad said that no price lists were displayed at shops, leaving sellers of food items and retailers at liberty to charge customers whatever their whims directed.

Dadu Deputy Commissioner Raja Shahzaman Khuhro said in reply to a question about why no bachat bazaar had been held in the city that there was a branch of Utility Stores in all 52 union councils in the district which were supplying food items at cheaper rates in accordance with government’s policy.

He claimed that bachat bazaar would not be of any use to general public since shopkeepers believed they were under no obligation to reduce rates of food items and suffer losses.

He said that most shopkeepers were not ready to set up stalls in the bachat bazaar. Hardly 30 to 35 shopkeepers had set up stalls in a bachat bazaar organised by the administration two years ago and they too sold their merchandise at market price, he said.

About monitoring of implementation on official price lists, he said that assistant commissioners and mukhtiarkars in Dadu, Johi, Khairpur Nathan Shah and Mehar talukas had been asked to pay surprise visits to bazaars and markets and impose fines if any shopkeeper was found overcharging citizens.

The chairman of market committee Ghulam Shabbir Abro said that shopkeepers were not cooperating with them in organising a bachat bazaar in Dadu. Besides, weather conditions also were not favourable for such bazaars, he said.

Dadu Chamber of Commerce president Ghulam Qadir Solangi rejected Mr Abro’s contention and accused both the market committee and the district administration of failing to cooperate with each other to organise a bachat bazaar.

He said that shopkeepers were ready to set up stalls if the bachat bazaar was provided security and other necessary facilities by the administration.

He said the deputy commissioner had chaired a meeting at Darbar Hall before the onset of Ramazan to reach a consensus over bachat bazaar and rates of essential food items but it only led to a hike in prices. He said that there was no mechanism for monitoring prices in markets.

Mumtaz Ali Channa, president of clothes shop-owners association, agreed with Mr Solangi and said that shopkeepers were ready to set up stalls in a bachat bazaar if the administration organised it.

President of citizen’s action committee Abdul Jabbar Babar appealed to the chief minister to ask Hyderabad commissioner and Dadu DC to organise bachat bazaars in Ramazan.

Khadim Hussain Mastoi, chairman of a civil society organisation, criticised police and the district administration for their failure to take action against the hotels and restaurants which were openly violating Ehteram-i-Ramazan Ordin­ance by running their businesses during the day.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2017